✍️ because our moms said so. that’s why.

This Sunday was Mother’s Day, and we know there’s nothing moms love more than talking about their kids! (Just kidding. Kind of. You’ll see.)

Here at the ‘arb, we’re all about telling your story. We’re trying to get better at being clear about what ours is. 

And who knows us better than our own moms?

From our Huggies to our Slack huddles, Team Mom has been behind us, cheering us on and supporting everything we do. The question is, do they actually know what we do for work?

We see some of you nodding your heads enthusiastically, and some of you calculating the last time you even texted your mom… 

Here’s what ours had to say.

We had the storyarb team do some real-life fieldwork, aka call up their mothers and mother figures to ask some questions. Here’s what they came back with.

“What do you think I do for work?”

"*lots of laughing* I have no clue. I know you work a lot but I don't really know what you do. I can't even put it into words. You're talking to people, seems kind of important, but I just don't know. *pauses* Did I fail?" —Ruth, our own CEO’s mom and retired Montessori teacher

“For storygarb?” (Close enough...) “You find a way to creatively wrap and market content for various different platforms." —Tania, a resident designer, chef, and driver

“Transponster. Marketing, some sort of marketing or something. I used to think you were an editor but like I don't know. Strate-cheese-ist?”—Ursula, private chef

"What does ‘B2B marketing’ mean to you?"*

"As in bumble bee? I can't even imagine.” —Julia, retired admin and horticultural therapist 🐝

*Please note that multiple moms answered “back to back” for this question.

"If I said I had to 'help executives build their personal brand,' what would that mean to you?"

"Figuring out what a company looks like, is all about, and what’s important about them, and putting it all together in an interesting format.” —Joanne, occupational therapist

"What do you think goes in a content kit?"

“How to build a website to describe your company.” —Sue, special ed teacher

"Scissors... Or a list of different ways to structure and promote content." —Tania again ✂️

"If you had a newsletter, what would it be about?" 

 “It would be about crafting. Next up — bedazzling Mah Jongg cards.” —Susan, former teacher

"Practices from different religious and wisdom traditions for spiritual wellbeing." —Luana, chaplain at a K-12 school and parish associate at a church

"What's the best part about being a parent (figure)?" 

Get your tissues ready:

“Watching your children grow into the people they're meant to be.”

“Watching your kids grow up to be wonderful adults.”

"Watching your children enjoy life."

“Seeing who your child grows into being and enjoying their company as a full-fledged adult.”

“Gosh, that's hard. It's just the best part of my life.”

Oh don’t mind the waterworks, we just had a rainstorm stuck in our eyes! 🥹

Thanks to all the moms out there who participated, and thanks to the ‘arb team for playing 20 questions with them.

Maybe we’ll do this again for Father’s Day … if they can hear our call over the lawnmower roar, that is.

Campaigns that got us talking: Speaking of kids, this Riverside ad about a gentleman pregnant with a … podcast is sure to encourage you to bring your greatest gifts into creation. 

AI spotlight: Fun fact: AI now costs more than the humans it's replacing, per Nvidia's VP of applied deep learning. Meanwhile, an MIT study found AI automation is only economically viable in 23% of vision-based roles. Despite that, Big Tech has announced $740 billion in AI capex this year, a 69% jump from 2025. 

So when leadership asks, "Is AI worth it?" it's gotten way more expensive to give the wrong answer.

Stuff that makes us scroll back up: Linh Mai, the National Zoo's first Asian elephant calf born in nearly 25 years, was rejected by her mother shortly after birth. So the Zoo's "auntie" elephants stepped up to raise her instead.

It's kind of like how we step in to nurture your closed-lost contacts when you think all hope is lost.

The Elephant Cam is back, now curated by trained Zoo volunteers following Linh Mai's every move. Consider this your permission to spend 20 minutes watching a baby elephant splash in a pool instead of checking Slack.

Parenting is hard. And so your boss — whether the parent of a company, a kid, or both — probably doesn’t have time to think about LinkedIn.

Maybe your CEO is brilliant at running a company and completely allergic to posting. Maybe your head of marketing has opinions worth hearing but hasn't touched their profile since 2019 (headshot included). Maybe your product lead is afraid of looking like a loser to all of their new SXSW buddies. 

That's where we come in.

We write for executives the way a kid might summarize a soccer match — you get to the action quick, and everyone knows you're scoring big.

Our exec social program is in beta. More to come…

Moms get the ick too. Here are some evergreen things to avoid, unless you want to hear your full government name out of your mom’s mouth:

• Forgetting to take the meat out of the freezer

• A used towel on the floor instead of hung up

• Floor legos

• Cleaning supplies as birthday presents

• Saying “do we have to?” when she asks you to invite your weird cousin to your wedding

If you did any of these things on Mother’s Day, shame on you!

Moms have always known the most important things: call when you get there, eat something real, and don't wait until you're ready — just start.

Turns out, that's pretty good content advice too. You don’t have to have it all figured out. Hit publish. Consistently. With something real to say.

Your mom didn't raise you to wait for a flawless moment. Neither did we.

See y’all next time. 

— the storyarb writers’ room 🫡

Oh! And another thing... Mother’s Day didn’t just come from one mom. Julia Ward Howe wanted to establish a Mother’s Day of Peace in June after what she witnessed in the Civil War, and mother-daughter duo Ann and Anna Jarvis sought to have the day honor mothers.

Anna Jarvis didn’t want the day to be boiled down to just flowers and greeting cards, so next year your mom better be getting more than just a phone call. Book her the most lavish spa day ever. She deserves it.