We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carly Kerndt a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Carly thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I always say my business was born out of desperation. In September 2020, I unexpectedly was laid off from my full-time job due to COVID-19. The company I worked for at the time had gone through two prior rounds of layoffs but I didn’t quite squeak through the third round – my entire position was eliminated from the business. I immediately jumped into the job search, which was a total dumpster fire at the time. I applied for anywhere from 20-30 jobs per day for about 6 weeks and rarely got a response. I felt defeated – at 28 years old I found myself living with my mom with no job – a situation I never thought I would find myself in. It was a very humbling moment. I knew I was smart, I knew I brought a lot to the table and finally I said, “If nobody will hire me then I will hire me”. I went online and registered my business with the state that very same day. I decided to offer Virtual Assistant services, most focusing on social media management because I had prior experience and thought I could market myself well. That’s how my business started and it was truly the best decision I have ever made.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I graduated from the University of Iowa with a Marketing and Finance degree. I found myself bouncing around between jobs for the years that followed – I went from Marketing at Corporate Jimmy Johns to Customer Service at Carvana to a Sales role at a recruiting agency to a Marketing role at a design-build firm. It turns out that all that ‘job hopping’ I did set me up for the success I have in my business. I’ve worked in Marketing. HR, Training, Sales, Operations, and Customer Service and I use skills I learned in each of those roles in being a business owner.

Now, I own a full-service digital marketing agency. We offer Social Media Management, Paid Ads, Google Ads, SEO, Email Marketing, Blog Management and Website Design. We don’t work with one specific industry, but we do have an extensive onboarding process where we take 3+ weeks to research and learn about our client’s target audience. There’s a saying in Marketing that goes, “If you are talking to everybody, then you are talking to nobody” so we make sure we know exactly who we are going to be talking to for our client.

That’s what really separates us apart from our competition – taking the time to understand our client, their industry, and most importantly their target audience so we can create content that attracts the right people.

We work with small businesses, entrepreneurs, and solopreneurs. We get that with an entrepreneur, their business is their baby, and we want to treat their baby with as much care as they do. As an entrepreneur myself, I want my employees and the contractors we work with to treat my business like they would their own. That’s the promise we give to our clients.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Our team is 100% remote, in fact, we have international team members.

The first person I brought on was to help take more time-consuming tasks off my plate so I could start to scale the business.

The next few team members I brought on are all experts in their craft. We have a Paid Ads manager, a Copywriter, an Engagement Specialist, etc. When I make a new hire, I make it clear to the team who that person is, what they are here to do, and how they are going to help us grow.

Everyone on the team feels valued and knows their role in growing and scaling the business. During their Onboarding, I start by giving them the backstory on my business so they feel more connected with the brand and our mission. I let them know the clients that we work with and why, so they feel connected to THEIR mission.

When I was working in ‘corporate America’ I always just felt like a number, so I’m dedicated to building a business that makes the team feel empowered and valued.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Instagram and client referrals are probably split 50/50.

On Instagram, we maintain a consistent posting schedule and we focus on creating content that educates, entertains, or inspires our audience. We remain really true to ourselves and often times I get told “I feel like I already know you and we’ve never met” – we create reels that have cuss words in them, I’m often in casual/athletic clothes, and our captions are purposely casual. But we also talk about our wins in the same intentionally casual way to give off the vibe that we deliver results, because… well, we do!

Client referrals also bring in a lot of business for us. We aim to make every client feel like the only client. We’re big BIG into customer service (thank you to my time as a Customer Advocate at Carvana for that one!). We’re always going above and beyond in the ways that our clients need it and are coming up with creative ideas that are relevant to their brand and audience. Our clients even post about us on their social media frequently because they’re so happy with what we’re doing! We also provide a lot of training to our clients, especially in our onboarding process. We explain what our strategy will be and why – we explain the Instagram algorithm so they can understand why we following the strategy that we are. Our clients feel involved and confident in their social media and marketing strategy, even if they aren’t creating the content.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.carlybridgetcreative.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/by.carlybridget/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carlybridgetcreative/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlykerndt/

Image Credits
Photography credit: MoreJoy Photography