We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Carly Morris. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Carly below.
Carly, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
My work ethic was developed at a young age. Growing up, I observed both of my parents working very hard in their career, including both going back to school to get their MBAs while working full time, with two kids. My parents placed expectations and responsibilities on me that I believe shaped the way I work either in my career or in life. In addition, I began working at age 15 as a lifeguard and babysitter which allowed me more independence to be able to afford gas money to get to and from work and to socialize with my friends. I continued to work through college and graduate school in order to pay for my expenses and receive an education in Speech Language Pathology. My work ethic continued to grow through my career by continuously wanting to learn more. I offered to help more at my first private practice that I worked at by learning everything from the front end to the back end of running a private practice in healthcare. These skills allowed me to gain leadership positions in a variety of healthcare practices as well as transitioning to the music business at Kirkwell Partners.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am the Vice President of Operations at Kirkwell Partners, a music management company based out of Atlanta, GA. Our mission is to inspire and pioneer a new age in the creative process, using love, passion, and dedication to create beautiful music. What sets us apart is our focus on the meaningfulness of our work. We want to be the source of the magic that comes from hard work and getting things done, and we believe that music has the power to help us achieve our goals. I am excited to be apart of Kirkwell Partners and seeing the growth we’ve had over this past year. I was introduced to this opportunity by our CEO, Dulayne Cumberlander, who is also a dear friend of mine. At the time, I was impacted by layoffs at a healthcare company where I was an Operations Manager for mental healthcare providers. I was devastated to say the least, as my passions had changed over the past couple of years as I witnessed how important mental healthcare was and how it was affecting loved ones. Listening to Dulayne talk about Kirkwell Partners made me think that I could help them. I offered my expertise in organization and operations to Dulayne one day and he gave me a chance. Needless to say I blew the partners away in what I could do for their business and I gained the title of Vice President of Operations for Kirkwell Partners. I am grateful for this opportunity as it combines my passions in music and business operations. It’s provided me an opportunity to learn something new and realize my leadership skills can be transferred across multiple industries. Currently, we have gained two new management opportunities in 2024, one of an artist and another of a grammy award winning producer. I will be the point of contact for both contracts and am excited to see what 2024 brings!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think the most impactful skill I have gained over my 16 years in my career is learning how to have a work/life balance and practice self care. I know it sounds cheesy but boy is it true! I’ve worked myself into the ground which resulted in burn out and poor mental health. I look back at it and can honestly say the only thing that I benefited from those situations was growth and resiliency. I’ve learned how important self care is and the ability to set boundaries in the work place. This is why I like entrepreneurship and building your own business. You are your own boss and you set your own boundaries without it impacting you negatively. In addition, I like the fact that I am able to be creative and work with a diverse team at Kirkwell Partners where my ideas are heard and respected. This brings me to my next area of knowledge that is impactful when working as a leader and with a team and that is providing psychological safety. I am currently earning a certificate in leadership from the Harvard Business School Online and this is where I learned the term “psychological safety”. Psychological safety is the shared belief that it’s safe to take interpersonal risks as a group. As I learned more about this term, I realized that the most psychologically safe I’ve felt in my career is with Kirkwell Partners and our team. We’ve been through our ups and downs while building the business but the one thing we’ve perfected is communicating effectively amongst each other. I truly can say that I feel safe in taking risks with the team that we have created. Finally, through leadership coaching, we’ve taken on a buzz word and that’s accountability. We’ve learned that being accountable to each other and our clients is what’s going to make us successful in the long run.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
I think the biggest advice for when things feel overwhelming is to take a step back. Take a break and reframe the work that needs to be done. Figure out what’s priority, map out your strategy and get to work. In addition, I will say it again and again, self care is necessary when you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed. I like to work out, meditate, journal and read to destress and relax. When you are well rested, work isn’t as stressful as it seems!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kirkwellpartners.com/
- Instagram: carly_kirkwellpartners
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlyrmorrisvpo/
