Rising Stars of the Profession: Mollie Williams Landry

Mollie Landry is a talented management consultant with unique experience in virtually every facet of strategic communication. Her comprehensive communication skillset includes web development and graphic design, branding and creative management, public relations strategy, copywriting/editing, and project management. She functions at the intersection of design, development, and communication strategy to create impactful deliverables and maintain long-term client engagements.

Notably, Mollie has developed and maintained a web presence for some of the most historic programming in Louisiana, including disaster recovery programs, coastal restoration, and watershed-based floodplain management. These engagements include leading client meetings, developing content, designing website layouts, and front-end development. Mollie also manages the firm's creative team of designers and developers, providing project planning, direction, and execution.

Prior to joining Emergent Method, Mollie spent nearly five years at a website design and public relations firm serving in a variety of roles in the public relations, graphic design, and web development specialties.

Mollie is a graduate of Louisiana State University, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication with a concentration in public relations and a minor in business administration. She also spent a semester abroad in Italy at the Università degli Studi di Urbino where she studied Italian language and art.

Mollie currently resides in Houston, TX with her husband where she works remotely for Emergent Method.

What do you consider your greatest personal or professional achievement?

Building a creative team that is poised for growth and success. It takes a village and none of this is credited only to me, but I am super proud of our team of designers, developers and creative strategists at Emergent Method. We started small and scrappy but our team has more than doubled over the past year and a half and we're gearing up for some very exciting things in the creative department. What I most admire about this team though is the commitment and attitude I see every day from each member. There is never an "us vs. them" mindset and we support each other and encourage one another—it is truly a teamwork environment. This goes not just for our creative department but the entire Emergent Method team.

What advice would you give a professional just beginning a career in consulting?

In consulting, it's important to maintain a balance in perspective. When you're just starting out, it's important to build relationships with peers and clients, and probably put in some extra hours to make sure you have a well-rounded set of tools and experience to build on in your career. However, don't let it become an all-consuming thing that you miss out on living life. When I start to feel overwhelmed, my mom always reminds me, "you're not saving lives" and that brings some perspective back to the situation I'm dealing with.

What do you enjoy most about your career in the consulting industry?

The impactful work I am able to do through design and web development that serves a higher purpose. As designers, we are able to take complicated processes, ideas or concepts and make them into easily digestible content. Whether the final deliverable be a compelling graphic, 100+ page master plan or an engaging, easy-to-navigate website or interactive component, our work helps our users understand complexities, achieve their goals, and get the help they need.

What's the best advice—personal or professional—you've ever received?

1. Embrace failure 2. Comparison is the thief of joy. I feel like this is thrown around a lot and it might insight an eyeroll but it's never rang truer for me than it does today. I am a perfectionist at heart and serve as my biggest critic, naturally this meant I used to get bent out of shape when I messed up or dropped the ball on something. The past year and a half has shown me more failure than I think I've ever experienced, it's also shown me the most personal growth I've ever experienced. Relatedly, at Emergent Method, I am surrounded by some of the most talented, smart and hardworking people in the business, it's easy to look to my left or right and point out areas where I don't measure up. However, after going through this exercise time and time again I've only seen it lead to discouragement. I'm still working on this but am learning to be thankful for the capacities I have been blessed with and choose to ask questions in order to learn from those around me who are more skilled and great at what they do.

What does being honored as a Rising Star mean to you?

It is an honor to be recognized on a national scale for my work. The most gratifying part of this process though was being nominated by my peers who I've worked alongside for nearly five years and interact with every day.