We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mary Carley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Mary thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job
Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of amazing, inspiring executives. When I was working in Human Resources at Ford Motor Company, I met Alan Mulally. He is a very down to earth, approachable leader. Although he had a team of executive assistants working twenty-four-seven to manage details of his global responsibilities, he insisted on doing a lot of things himself such as new employee orientation. The lesson he taught me is – It is nice to be important but even more important to be nice. I think if more leaders approached their role with kindness, the world would be a better place.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My career in health promotion and human services spans thirty years. I have broad management experience in a variety of organizations having designed and implemented medical, dental, vision, pharmacy, behavioral health benefits and wellness programs in public health organizations, hospitals, health plans and corporations. I have a BA in Biology and Human Services from Albion College and a MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. I serve on the Marketing Committee of Impact100 Metro Detroit and served as the Vice President of the Albion College Alumni Board of Director for three years.
My career has taken many twists and turns. I have ups and downs just like everyone else does. I have learned along the way that the things that bring me joy are writing and helping others. I founded Carley Creative Concepts in 2016 and have been blogging and posting to social media ever since. I taught myself how to use a variety of social media platforms and put up several webpages using WordPress. And even though I still work full time in healthcare administration, I find the time to manage my business as a side hustle.
I look forward to helping businesses with their social media marketing needs whether for personal, business or non profit work. In particular, I help small business market their business in the most cost efficient way often saving thousands of dollars by moving away from techniques such as paper-based mailings to digital strategies.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
During a job loss, I had to pivot. It was a scary time for me and my family to be without my income. I was determined to make this business work and I had to put the time and energy into learning new skills and putting myself out there. Like any loss, I went through the stages of grief. But I am glad that I went through it and I am stronger and smarter because of the experience. As a result of loss, I had a great gain – Carley Creative Concepts.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I actually used some of my severance pay and unemployment benefits from my job loss to start my business. On a very tight budget, I bought a computer and used LinkedIn Premium Learning to teach myself how to use social media, Hootsuite, LinkTree and WordPress. I had some start up fees to host my webpage and promote my business initially. Soon I had clients. I guess the rest is history!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://carleycreativeconcepts.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carleycreativeconcepts/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carleycreativeconcepts
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryaglescarley/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarleyConcepts
- Yelp: https://biz.yelp.com/home/1XHUbMHWL_meUT0eF45yCw/
- Other: LinkTree: http://linktr.ee/macarley TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@carleycreativeconcepts Pinterest: http://ow.ly/OIjI50qrxzU