“Just do you,” Marisa Shockley from Omnicom
Jul 17, 2025Meet Marisa Shockley, Global Client Lead at Omnicom, where she leads the energy sector and is responsible for bringing the best of Omnicom’s capabilities and talent across their diverse offerings in brand, advertising, PR, technology, data, and innovation. Marisa’s expertise has led her to oversee over 20 Omnicom agencies across 26 different countries and a team of over 400 people. Her approach to leadership and driving organic growth has been featured as a case study in the Omnicom University Senior Management Program, which leverages the Harvard Business School teaching curriculum and professors. Marisa brings over 20 years of experience in driving B2B and B2C transformation and change to produce positive business results.
Marisa joined Morgan James, Content Marketing Specialist at SiriusXM Media, to be a part of a special, upcoming season of the Pass the Mic Podcast called Mentor Me. In her interview, they discussed the complex terrain of ambition, burnout, family, identity, and time in a world where your schedule is packed, your inbox never sleeps, and your career is gaining momentum.
Tune in to Marisa’s full interview below, then listen to some highlights from the conversation.
Do what’s best for you.
Highlight: “Just do you. If you do what's best for you, you're going to get the best output. Whether it's personally, whether it's professionally, having that confidence to get inspiration from other leaders, but not be other leaders. If you could take the ingredients from multiple leaders and mentors of what you've liked, and then create that recipe for you, for your own success, that's the advice that I would give.” - Marisa Shockley
Ask for flexibility.
Highlight: “Have the confidence. Have the conversation with your boss or with your teams on if you're starting to feel burnt out. What does work-life balance look like for you? Deliver some tangible things first… Show a true track that you're able to deliver on the work. And that you might require a little bit more flexibility with how you're doing that and where you're doing that. It's a very individual conversation of what's going to work for you and what's going to work for your company.” - Marisa Shockley
Work smarter, not harder.
Highlight: “Working smarter is not about working harder. Working smarter is thinking about what is going to deliver the most value to whatever you're trying to do. And that's hard, because sometimes you have to step back and disrupt the way that you've been working… Because you're doing the things that your team and your clients are telling you to do, but think about the things they're not telling you to do and they're maybe not asking you to… Having a point of view, reading something and saying, ‘Hey, I know that we've been doing it this way, but I read this article, and I'm seeing this trend. And I had this idea of doing it this other way.’ Bringing that conversation to your boss and then having your boss bring that to her boss, that's working smarter.” - Marisa Shockley
Find ways to upskill.
Highlight: “Find ways to upskill… When you're just in the minutia of the day-to-day and that's all you're doing, you don't bring in outside perspective. You don't stop to think differently. I think that's really important and not something I did very early in my career. It was all about, ‘Am I getting my to-do list done?’ I wasn't bettering myself and the work… I absolutely think that's important because then you feel like you're getting the value from the outside, and you're learning, and you are growing. And it's a great retention, not only for me because I always want to be learning, but for my team members.” - Marisa Shockley
Map out your days.
Highlight: “Your work-life balance is not somebody else's work-life balance. It's a very personal way of working. And it's very personal to how somebody runs their day to day… Really think through, ‘What am I doing today? What are the things I can control: my free time or the things that I'm going to do to upskill my career?’ Maybe I can't control the fact that I'm going have to take notes, or I'm going to have to join a certain meeting, but I really try to map out my day to determine how I can be the most productive partner to my clients, how I could be the best leader to my teams, and how I make sure that I am emotionally delivering on the things that I need for myself, whether it's spending time with my family, having dinner with friends, going to the gym.” - Marisa Shockley
Learn how to manage yourself.
Highlight: “Just like you would manage a client or you would manage a project, you have to manage yourself. You really have to manage yourself. And I have to sometimes remind myself that I'm not managing myself in the right way… And it really comes down to those non-negotiables. I think that's what I would have wanted to tell my younger self. You're rising up through your career, and you feel like you have to do everything. And no one can do everything, it's impossible. And having the confidence to say, ‘It's okay not to do everything, it's okay.’” - Marisa Shockley
Marisa’s advice is a goldmine for any aspiring leader: be yourself, have confidence, and take the opportunities to take charge of what you can control. For more inspirational content like this, check out the Pass the Mic page.
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