EmpowerHERFridays with Mara Saager

Dear Mara Kaschuba ,

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your story. I am so curious about the following topics. Shall we dive into it?

1. How would you describe your current role & responsibilities??

I am the Co-Founder and COO of barkerz GmbH and CREATIVE DREAMS by barkerz , where we create performance creatives for brands and their paid social ads. I started as creative lead, building the creative team for the agency, but in a startup you have the chance to take over multiple roles. So I transitioned into project management, HR and other topics that gave me the ability to become COO pretty quickly.

In daily business I am leading our operations, checking in on our team leads and developing strategies and concepts for our clients. My job is to ensure a smooth workflow in order to enable great results for our clients and a happy team.

2. If you look back, what key skills or qualities have been crucial for your success so far?

For me there are three qualities coming to my mind:?

Adaptability has been so important to me. My role in the company changed by growing a team and so did the market. Founding barkerz GmbH in 2021 performance marketing was about targeting and media buying. But quickly creatives became the gamechanger and we had to focus on the brands’ needs and what we know best.?

I also had a big vision in mind since day one. Being a young leader can be hard sometimes but aiming for this vision keeps me on track and motivates me every day.

And in the end a big vision is only a castle in the air without the right team on your side. Since day one I strive to become a great leader and empower every single team member to create their own vision inside our big vision of our future.?

3. Social Media is such a dynamic space. Can you share how you keep yourself up to date with all trends??

As a social media native I am a heavy user of Instagram and TikTok . I love consuming content a lot and always make sure to have fixed time slots for this. Where I check trends the platform recommends to me but also search precisely for specific niches.

So I can recognize patterns, discuss them with our team and evaluate which trends are short-lived and what has potential for our performance creative game. After that we make hypotheses and analyze them with the data we collected.?

I also stay in touch with clients, network partners and content creators to better myself by a professional exchange. The different perspectives on the market and the trends are always inspiring and a needed source to stay up to date.

4. What is a current field you want to get better at? Curious to see if anyone from the community might support you in that!

I really want to focus on leadership to create a great environment for talents to grow. I often recognize young talents with so much potential but without a concrete plan on how to reach their personal goals and find their passion in their career.?

For me being an excellent leader starts with empathy and the right vision but there are a lot of tools that create real excellence in the end. So you can not only see the potential but help employees to use it to become an expert in their field and love their work by understanding their blockers, empowering them and giving them the resources to grow.

5. Thank you so much for sharing that so openly! One last question: Which woman would you like to nominate to share her story and why??

I’d like to nominate Franziska Frick She’s one of the best examples that you don’t have to be a founder to inspire and empower women.

Next week we continue with another woman who has thrived in diverse environments, from founding her own company to climbing the corporate ladder - she did it all! Stay tuned for next Friday!