Today we’d like to introduce you to Karissa Widder.
Hi Karissa, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I run a digital marketing agency specializing in photo and social media management for interior designers and bespoke brands. Growing up, I was always passionate about photography and writing. I interned with wedding photographers, capturing weddings and portraits on my own, and used photography to create content for my marketing positions at Chick-Fil-A, my high school job, and running my college’s social media and campus-wide newsletter (over 10k subscribers). All these various experiences had no point, as I was pursuing a career in Speech Therapy. After graduating with a Communication Sciences and Disorders degree, I took the next step and went to graduate school for speech therapy. One semester in, I realized I would never be delighted if I never gave my creative dreams a fair shot. I dropped out in January and was hired at a local marketing agency in March. 6 months later, I had enough clients to go out on my own and have been building my business ever since!
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?
Of course not! It’s easy to see the result on social media and assume that everything magically fell into place, but that’s not the case. There are many difficult aspects to running your own business that I never anticipated. I had to get thick skin quickly when dealing with client challenges. I had to learn to talk about money confidently, something many women don’t feel comfortable with. Owning the worth of my work and charging fair prices has been difficult. I’ve had to deal with send-you-to-therapy managers and learn not to put my worth in what I produce. I’m only 25, and know I have so much to learn. Sometimes that is exciting, and sometimes that feels overwhelming.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us more about your business.
Kindred by K is a marketing agency for creatives and bespoke brands. We specialize in social media management, email marketing, creative coaching, and photo for local clients. Kindred by K bridges the gap between artistry and strategy. Some social media marketing tactics need more sense of community and authenticity. Instead of serving the community and offering creative, engaging, and thoughtful content, the focus is on vanity metrics, such as likes, and doing anything to go viral. We love bright colors and witty writing at Kindred, which sets us apart from the cookie-cutter captions and Canva templates in social media marketing. Most of all, we love getting to know our clients and creating a social media experience for their followers that truly mirrors who they are and the heart behind their business. Kindred also has a newsletter once a week that is designed to be a creative break from mindless scrolling and inspire readers to follow through on their creative dreams and visions. The world needs more creatives, and we are honored to work with and share the story of some of the best!
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check?
Slack for endless communication. We keep things simple and primarily operate in Google. We love following various social media insight accounts on LinkedIn to keep up with the latest trends, and lastly – I love pen and paper. Something is to be said about sitting down and writing down ideas; it’s where the magic happens!
Pricing:
- Social media services start at 1200, per month.
- Photo rates start at $350
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kindredbyk.com/
- Instagram: @karissawidder, @kindredbyk
Image Credits
All taken by Kindred by k
