Her Story
About Kailey
I got pregnant with my oldest daughter in college, which was a kick in the butt to figure some things out more quickly than I anticipated. I graduated from Clemson with an undergrad in travel and tourism and immediately started in the event and tourism field, but then quickly realized that I needed a little bit more direction. As a single mom, I went back to school to get my MBA in strategic management and business planning, and that's when I started in marketing. I worked for an agency on the advertising and marketing side, which was a lot of fun, and then switched over about halfway to the sales side in ad sales, and have loved every minute of that. I've been with 6AM City for 5 years now, and I really started working here because I loved the mission. We produce hyper-local email newsletters that are conversational daily emails, but they are local. We don't report on crime and politics at all, so it's a good news news source. It's about educating people about what's going on in their communities and then activating them to go be a part of it. I handle partnerships across Florida and in Charlotte, North Carolina, and my main goal is to find companies who have the same vision that we do, that care about their communities and want their employees and communities to feel empowered with knowledge about what's going on. We're a brand-safe publication, and we have a full creative services team that helps create content and becomes experts in our clients' fields so we can help create content that's delivered to our audience in a way that we know they're going to respond.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kailey
01What do you attribute your success to?
The Lord's just been really kind to me. I don't want to take credit for anything that I've achieved or succeeded in, because it's been the people that have been put around me. I got really lucky where I live, in the opportunities that I've been able to come across. I just think the career path that I've been able to take, and the people, the mentors that have been put in my life, and the opportunities that I've been able to go after, have just kept building. And then, yeah, of course, my family, like, supporting all of it.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Put yourself out there. Networking is the most important, and don't worry about all the jargon or having everything polished and perfect. Relationships are going to be key, and knowing your product and knowing your audience and being able to build relationships in your community and speak confidently is gonna be what makes you most successful. While I will always encourage everyone to go to college, because that's very important as a foundation, being hands-on in the workforce is much more valuable than reading a textbook. College is very important from a knowledge and growth perspective, but while you're learning, you also need to be doing, because you're gonna be able to apply that a lot easier if you're learning it while you're doing it than if you're learning it and then you wait years.
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