Editor’s Note: Supporting women should not be limited to a month. So, at Reel Chicago, we have decided to amplify and promote dynamic women’s voices all year long. Today, let us introduce you to Chicago agency Quality Meats Group Account Director, Emma Delorm.
Emma Delorm is a Group Account Director at Quality Meats Creative, an independent creative ad agency making some big moves. Driven by a passion for making, she’s spent the bulk of her career creating social, digital, and integrated marketing campaigns for global brands including Keurig Dr. Pepper, Samsung, Beam Suntory, The Coca-Cola Company, Comcast, Delta, and AT&T.
She’s dedicated to fostering open and supportive teams – both in-agency and with clients together – knowing that a foundation of trust and respect enables the best work to flourish.
Emma currently resides in Brooklyn with her fiancé and their grumpy orange cat. On the weekends you can find her trying to conquer her unending wishlist of restaurant reservations in all five boroughs.
Let’s meet Emma!
What’s your origin story?
My dad is from New York (State), and my mom is from South Carolina. But I’m from New Jersey. I was born in “The City” (New York City, that is). But by the time I was two my parents had had enough of two toddlers in a small UES apartment and moved us about 15 miles west to the ‘burbs. Commuter dad and all that.
Being from New Jersey is funny. Everyone loves to hate it. And so I latched onto the other parts of my familial identity. I’d claim the city like it was mine – as if I’d spent more time living there than just my pre-memory-forming years. Better to be from the city than from New Jersey. Or, I was proud of being “part southern” – I’d been presented in a Debutante Ball by my grandmother, that must count. More interesting to have Southern roots than to be from New Jersey.
Inconsequential as it seems, I think all of that is really the beginning of self-acceptance. I was always the most interested in people and behavior – I excelled most in language and history and art and psychology. And yet, I spent years and years trying to figure out my own story.
I graduated high school and went straight to college in North Carolina for a couple of years before I decided I was definitively “from the North”. I transferred to Penn State (We are!) and graduated with a degree in Journalism and Political Science. And then it was time to choose where to go – and the choice was obvious – The City. And I got there eventually… by way of New Jersey.
But all these years later, finally having lived in the city for the better part of a decade, now if you asked me I’d tell you straight up – I’m from New Jersey. Don’t be a hater.
How did you break into Advertising?
I didn’t do myself any favors early on in terms of industry connections. My Dad was a landscape architect and my Mom was an artist, so no connections there. My major wasn’t in my industry, nor were my internships. So, I was flyin’ blind and I took the first job I could get at a PR agency.
At the time I was living at home – in New Jersey – because an internship-turned-entry-level salary wasn’t affording me The City. Frankly, that’s when I started to realize how fortunate I was to be from New Jersey. I may not have been an ad industry nepo baby, but I was extremely fortunate to be able to crash at my parents’ house for a few years and commute in while I figured it out.
That first job wasn’t headed in the direction I envisioned for myself, but the advertising industry in NYC was and is tough. Getting a job was competitive, and all of my competition had ad agency internships and connections. So, I started applying to satellite offices in, you guessed it, New Jersey. And finally, I landed my first job in advertising. I stuck it out in New Jersey until my experience could stand on its own and then, I started applying for jobs in The City, and once I got in, I never left.
Who were your mentors, and how did they influence your journey?
I’ve been super lucky to have a good mix of hands-on mentorship, and hands-off space to figure out my own way of working. Every experience, good or bad, offers a lesson in how you do or don’t want to show up in work, and in life.
Ken Mulligan at [then] Wunderman Thompson showed me what it was to have a manager who genuinely cares about your growth – professionally and personally. He also showed me how to build a team intentionally across every discipline, not just with great talent but with great people. It’s one of the biggest lessons I want to take forward. This is a tough industry at times, and the people in your corner shouldn’t make it tougher. He showed me that you can be a boss, and still see a human.
In many ways Amy Edwards and Pao Ortega at QM have only solidified what I learned first from Ken. They’re women in leadership who show up every day to get shit done, but their humanity always stays at the forefront. They see me, the human, everyday.
What fuels your creativity?
Being surrounded by inspiring and inspired people – clients, my team, friends in the industry, friends outside the industry – who want to create something great together. Nothing in our industry is done in a vacuum. When a group of people are really jiving on a project, riffing and “yes and”-ing each other’s ideas, you know you’re on the precipice of something great.
What’s the biggest myth about women in your field?
I think the same old stereotypes against women exist regardless of industry and manifest in different ways. But the biggest myth I see busted every day is that we can’t do it all – success in work, our home lives, and our extracurriculars. Women absolutely can, and do, do it all.
Name a creative risk you took that paid off.
As an account gal, I certainly can’t claim the creative risks as my own. I’m more a championer of the risks. But you could say coming to Quality Meats was a creative risk for me. It was a leap of faith from years at holding company agencies, to a young independent agency with a totally new way of thinking. But the work coming out of this butcher shop speaks for itself – risk meet reward.
What’s your take on the rise of AI?
I always said I’d never be behind technological times like our grandparents figuring out the internet. But on a personal level, AI freaks me out. On a global level, it has the capacity for good, like big strides made in the medical field, if used responsibly. On an advertising level, we need to figure out how to use it ethically as a tool without giving it a salary.
What’s a piece of advice from another woman you carry with you?
I’ve been seeing my therapist for about 10 years, and she has a wealth of advice (as is her job and I love her for it). For some time I had a penchant for catastrophizing, and she told me when you get into that kind of mindset to ask yourself “and then what?”
You might have a few negative answers, but ultimately, “and then what?” always ends with some version of “I come out the other side.” It may be hard, but you’ve survived 100% of your worst days.
Are you rebooting Soul Train, American Bandstand, or MTV Spring Break?
Can’t say any of these were ever at the top of my list. But can we bring back music videos on MTV?
How do you balance ambition with self-care?
I think particularly since the pandemic, it’s been critical to set boundaries. Not just with others, but with myself. Carve out time for a mid-day walk, put on calendar blocks for the gym or therapy or a manicure, and make sure you’re tending to your personal life with the same rigor that you put towards your work. If your tank is running on empty, you aren’t showing up your best.
You’re writing a memoir. What’s the title?
An Organized Mess.
Go to Karaoke song.
Anything original Britney Spears and I will not apologize.
In 10 years, what do you hope to look back and say you changed?
At the end of the day, I just want to be a part of moving women and marginalized groups forward. In a long history of slow progress – “one step forward, two steps back” – there has still been so much progress. And there’s still so much more to be done.
It’s obviously not something I can change alone, but we’re in a critical moment in history and I don’t want to be someone who let two steps back turn into 10. I hope when I look back, the workplace is better and more equitable than the way we found it.
Emma’s Socials:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmadelorm/
To see who else is a REEL WOMAN click here.
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