Today we’d like to introduce you to Ann Marie Langrehr.
Hi Ann Marie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been a creative for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I thought I’d become either a fashion designer or a magazine editor. I was constantly sketching clothes in notebooks, writing, and drawn to anything creative. For a long time, I imagined my career would be in editorial.
While studying Mass Communication with a minor in Creative Writing at Winthrop University, I became Editor-in-Chief of our Her Campus chapter and served as Social Media Director, just as social media was beginning to emerge as a real marketing discipline. During my senior year, I interned in Charlotte and realized there was an opportunity to combine my love of writing, creativity, branding, and strategy into one career.
After graduating, I moved straight to New York City and joined Eat This, Not That! as an intern. Within about a month, I was promoted to Social Media Editor, where I wore just about every hat imaginable. From there, I joined Nylon Consulting, which introduced me to the luxury interiors and design industry that I still work in today.
I was later recruited to Interior Marketing Group to help build its internal marketing agency, where I worked alongside an incredibly talented PR team and gained firsthand experience in luxury real estate, staging, and design marketing. Eventually, for personal health reasons, I needed a remote role and joined Hyatt, where I worked on hospitality marketing and had the opportunity to travel throughout Mexico. I genuinely loved the work, but the travel demands ultimately weren’t sustainable for me at that point in my life.
Throughout every full-time role, I always had freelance social media clients on the side. It started during COVID helping a creator friend, then grew through referrals from friends, colleagues, and industry connections. While I was at Interior Marketing Group, I also worked with Designer Home Tours and continued meeting designers who wanted strategic support but didn’t necessarily need or want a large agency. Those relationships slowly became the foundation of what would eventually become AM Social Strategy.
When I left Hyatt, I decided to bet on myself and pursue the business full time while living in Paris. It wasn’t a smooth start. I unexpectedly lost nearly all of my client work almost immediately, and I had to rebuild from the ground up. Fortunately, I met an incredible collaborator at a Houston agency who trusted me with client work that summer. That experience strengthened my PR pitching skills, expanded my network within the design industry, and ultimately helped me rebuild the business into something even stronger.
Today, AM Social Strategy has grown into a boutique consultancy serving luxury interior designers, architects, and home brands. I currently work with eight retainer clients alongside campaign-based partnerships, have several new proposals in progress, and recently hired my first associate. This year, my focus is on building stronger systems, growing the team intentionally, and continuing to work with the kinds of brands I’ve admired for years. Looking back, it’s incredible to realize that I’m now collaborating with companies and designers I once looked up to from afar. It’s been a full-circle moment, and I’m excited to see where the next chapter takes the business.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I don’t know a single business owner or hard-working woman in my network who’s had an easy road, so I don’t think my story is unique in that sense. Building a business has been one long series of figuring things out as you go.
I’ve had managers who made me question my abilities, and I’ve also made mistakes as a manager myself. I’ve had to leave jobs I genuinely loved because my health needed to come first, even when I had no idea where my next paycheck would come from. I’ve moved abroad and continued running a business almost entirely for clients six time zones behind me, which has been both rewarding and incredibly challenging. When I first committed to my business full-time, I unexpectedly lost nearly all of my clients at once and had to rebuild from scratch.
I’ve worked plenty of late nights, taken countless early morning and late-night calls, and spent more hours than I can count working from airports and airplanes. There have been moments where I questioned if I was making the right decisions, but every challenge forced me to become a better business owner.
Along the way, I’ve learned how to write stronger contracts, set clearer expectations, price my work with confidence, negotiate scopes, build better systems, and know when to say yes versus when to protect my own time. I’ve also learned that relationships matter more than any one project. If a client needs to pause because of their own business, I never want them to feel like they’re burning a bridge. I understand what it’s like to run a business, and I’ve found that approaching those situations with empathy has led many of those relationships to come back around over time.
Looking back, I honestly don’t dwell on the difficult parts very much because every mistake, setback, and unexpected detour has shaped the way I lead today. They’ve made me more resilient, more adaptable, and better at reading people, navigating conflict, and building long-term relationships. I don’t think I’d have the business I have today without all of those experiences.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I think what I do is a little hard to explain because “social media strategist” means something different to everyone.
Yes, I build content calendars, write captions, manage campaigns, and look at analytics, but that’s honestly such a small part of my job. What I really love is figuring out what makes someone or a brand interesting and helping them communicate that in a way that feels natural. A lot of my clients are incredibly talented designers or brands that have beautiful work, but they’re busy running businesses. My job is to step in, understand their voice, understand their goals, and connect the dots between everything they’re already doing.
I work almost exclusively in the luxury interiors and design industry, which has become such a fun niche because it combines so many things I’ve always loved: creativity, architecture, fashion, photography, storytelling, travel, and incredible people. Every client is different, and that’s honestly my favorite part. I never want two clients to sound alike. My goal is always for someone to read a caption and immediately know whose voice they’re hearing.
I also think one of my strengths is that I see the bigger picture. I’m not just thinking about what gets posted tomorrow. I’m thinking about how a collection launch ties into a speaking engagement six months from now, how a press feature can become content, how a collaboration should be introduced, or what story hasn’t been told yet. Sometimes I joke that my job is equal parts strategist, editor, producer, project manager, therapist, and detective because I’m constantly piecing together information from different people to make sure the final story feels effortless.
I’m probably most proud of the relationships I’ve built. Nearly all of my business has grown through referrals, and I don’t take that lightly. The design industry is surprisingly small, and trust means everything. Being invited into someone’s business, hearing their ideas before they’re public, helping shape how they present themselves to the world…that’s a responsibility I never take for granted.
What sets me apart is that I genuinely care. I’m not interested in chasing every trend or making every client fit into the same formula. I want people to stop scrolling because the content feels authentic, thoughtful, and true to the brand behind it. I think that’s why so many of my clients stay with me and why I’ve been fortunate to build a business almost entirely through word of mouth.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I have a feeling a lot of people answer this question with “hard work” or “determination,” or even caffeine and while those things absolutely matter, I don’t think they’re what’s made me successful.
For me, it’s taste.
More specifically, it’s being able to recognize what makes someone stop scrolling and say, “Wow, I want to know more.”
That sounds simple, but I think it’s one of the hardest things to teach. The very first thing I do when onboarding a client is immerse myself in everything they’ve ever created. I look through years of photography, press, projects, analytics, and social posts. I’m looking for patterns. What naturally catches people’s attention? What makes this designer different? What story hasn’t been told yet?
Sometimes the wow factor is obvious. It’s an unbelievable home, a dramatic staircase, a bold wallpaper, an incredible view, or a project in an unexpected location. But more often, it’s subtle. It might be scale, color, craftsmanship, a unique process, or simply the way someone approaches their work.
I think one of the biggest mistakes brands make is assuming that what they find interesting is automatically what their audience will find interesting. When you’re that close to your own business, it’s hard to see it through fresh eyes. My job is to be that outside perspective. I’m constantly asking, “If someone has never heard of this brand before, what’s going to make them stop, stay, and want to learn more?”
I also think one of the qualities that’s contributed most to my success is that I’m honest with my clients. I’m never going to tell someone an idea is great if I don’t genuinely believe it will work. I care too much about the outcome for that. My clients trust me because they know I’ll respectfully push back when I think there’s a stronger direction. They didn’t hire me to agree with every decision…they hired me to bring expertise, perspective, and creative thinking they may not have because they’re understandably so close to their own business.
At the end of the day, my goal isn’t just to make something beautiful. It’s to help people see what makes a brand remarkable in the first place. I think that’s the difference between simply posting content and building a story people actually remember.
Pricing:
- Because every client has different needs, I don’t publish fixed pricing. I create custom proposals based on the scope of work, whether that’s a one-time strategy audit, campaign support, or ongoing monthly partnership.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amsocialstrategy/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578047837799
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annmarielangrehr/
