Meet Amberly: PR Pro

Meet Amberly! She’s one of those women who knows who she is and is as kind as she is resilient. She was just honored a few days ago at PRWeek‘s Annual Awards Gala as Outstanding Professional of the Year! I am so excited to share her with you and I know you’ll learn as much from her as I have.

Tell us a little about yourself and your career

My name is Amberly Asay, I graduated from BYU with a degree in Communications with an emphasis in PR. I started working at Method Communications about six weeks after I graduated college and have been there ever since! Working in agency has been an amazing experience for me and has taught me so much.

Agency life is fast paced, tough and really fun. It’s really the best way to start a career in PR (in my opinion) because it pushes you and teaches you to be an expert on so many different industries.

How does your community of women you surround yourself with support you?

Oh my goodness, where do I even start??? I feel like I have many groups of women from all aspects of my life who help me when I need it! Here are a few examples:

My friend Mary, she’s a stay at home mom and I met her at church! We served over the same group of girls and really just had a great friendship. My schedule has been a bit over the top the last few weeks and jokingly she asked how I was doing and I told her that I needed someone to do my dishes and five minutes later she showed up and did my dishes (which I was super embarrassed about and tried to help her with them)! Seriously such a relief in my life (and I know this sounds silly/pathetic – like you cant even do you dishes?) but at that time it was what I needed!

My friend Roshan, I was super sick and just sad and she showed up at my house with dinner! What a thing you need when you are sick and just feeling yuck I made a goal this year to read a specific amount of books and I accidentally set up a book club in the process! But the club has been great! It’s let me see my friends more, help reach my goal and just have a lot of fun in the meantime!

My family are great examples – especially my mom! She is the one that taught me that I could do anything and taught me how to be organized. I definitely wouldn’t be able to get everything done in a day that I need to without the organizational/prioritization skills my mom gave me!

Last year my aunt signed up for a half marathon and encouraged me to do the same! I signed up and although we live kind of far apart, we kept each other on our training schedule and were able to do the half together—what a great way to make a goal, stick to it and then keep each other accountable.

How do you stay true to yourself in your career path? 

This may sound silly but I try to take a walk every day! Getting up and outside (even if it’s cold) is one of the best things I do all day. It gets my blood pumping, makes me think clearer, and gives me a chance to talk to my co-workers (if they come) about things OUTSIDE of work. Reminds you that you work with actual PEOPLE.

What do you wish you could go back and tell your younger self re: your career aspirations? 

I actually didn’t think that I wanted to stay in PR! I ALWAYS had a goal to get at least a Masters degree and thought that I would end up teaching. However, I quickly learned that in PR (and with getting married so young and putting my husband through school) that sometimes a masters degree is not always the right decision!

It took me awhile to figure out that sometimes higher education is not always the right IMMEDIATE decision and that you should just learn as much as you can from your coworkers and clients! School is still in the plans for me but as far as timing—who knows? I’ll just have to wait and see.

What is your career-related mantra?

Personal one: “Being tender and open is beautiful. As a woman, I feel continually shhh’ed. Too sensitive. Too mushy. Too wishy washy. Blah blah. Don’t let someone steal your tenderness. Don’t allow the coldness and fear of others to tarnish your perfectly vulnerable beating heart.

Nothing is more powerful than allowing yourself to truly be affected by things. Whether it’s a song, a stranger, a mountain, a rain drop, a tea kettle, an article, a sentence, a footstep, feel it all – look around you. All of this is for you. Take it and have gratitude. Give it and feel love.”

Work (I guess?): “the secret to getting ahead is getting started”

As a woman: “ A man told me that for a woman. I was very opinionated. I said for a man, you’re kind of ignorant.” – Anne Hathaway