Carissa Richardson on starting your own marketing agency, paid advertising transparency, and building a business around the life you actually want.

Carissa Richardson spent more than twenty years inside traditional and digital media agencies. Then her school district moved to half-day kindergarten, she had two kids back to back, and no version of the job worked anymore. She left without a plan. What grew out of that is Kindred Strategy, a paid advertising agency built on two convictions: clients should understand exactly where their money goes, and great work should not cost you the parts of life that matter most.

In this special member edition of The Power Lounge, Amy Vaughan and Carissa get practical about what it actually takes for women in digital to build the thing they wish had existed. Charging what you are worth. Why transparency is strategy and not a nice to have. Growing only as fast as the life you want allows. And how community, not cold outreach, built an entire referral based business.

WHAT YOU WILL TAKE AWAY

• Efficiency pays you differently depending on who you work for. Inside an agency it earns you more work. On your own it earns you more money.
• Transparency is a business model, not a personality trait. Clients own their ad accounts, reporting leads with an executive summary, and optimization targets the metric the client actually cares about.
• Charge what you are worth from day one. The knowledge came with you when you left.
• Growth is a choice. Carissa has grown only to the edge of the life she wants, and her revenue tracks her kids’ school schedule on purpose.
• Guardrails hold. Published working hours in her email signature, scheduled sends after five, and a hard stop when the bus pulls up.
• A business plan can work as a safety net when you give up the salary and the insurance.
• Community is business development. The referrals that built this business came from community first, clients second.

FROM THE EPISODE

“I immediately made back my salary because I’m actually getting paid for every hour that I work and my efficiency is equaling more money now.” Carissa Richardson

“I really think my business would not be here if it wasn’t for community.” Carissa Richardson

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Welcome and why this is a special member edition
02:29 Two decades in agencies and the wall that ended it
05:21 Capable versus confident when you go out on your own
08:04 Why transparency felt urgent enough to build around
11:32 The hardest assumption to break: charging what you are worth
12:58 Efficiency pays more when you work for yourself
15:01 Transparency in practice: client ad accounts and real reporting
18:04 Growing only as much as the life you want allows
21:56 Guardrails, working hours, and the schedule send
25:38 Delegation, the competence trap, and what to hand off
30:38 Turning convictions into structure, and the business plan as safety net
38:12 How community built the business
42:44 What to know before you take the leap
45:34 Where agency models go next
47:34 Power round

CONNECT

Carissa Richardson, Kindred Strategy: https://www.kindred-strategy.com/

Carissa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carissarichardson/

Together Digital: https://togetherindigital.com

The Power Lounge on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@togetherindigital3269

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