Today we’d like to introduce you to Carly Adair.
Carly, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in a small town known as Meadville, Pennsylvania. We were famously known for channel lock pliers and old railroads. I spent my early years in the gloomy Amish town, dreaming of becoming the next Disney Channel star. Although at the time any sort of career outside of being married young and starting a family seemed a little out there. I put one foot in front of the other and worked hard at what was in front of me and my lower middle-class family of 5. I worked hard at school. I was the straight-A student, the honors kid, the girl who wanted the choir solo, and the student body president. I couldn’t help but try to do my best everywhere I had the choice.
When my parents got divorced and my perfect little family began to unravel during my freshman year of college, I continued to do all that I knew to do to survive on my own and make my way out of the situation. I worked even harder at school, on internships, starting my own business, and making ends meet through retail and food jobs. At the University of South Carolina, my dreams of stardom pivoted to dream to dreams of working in journalism, social media, or public relations. I graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s degree before the age of 21 years old (because what else would you do in a global pandemic?) and was then faced with the question, what’s next?
For the first time in my life, I had been fortunate enough to save up a couple of thousand dollars in cash for my life after college. And, while facing a tumultuous home life while living at home during the pandemic, I decided to take the biggest risk possible and move to Los Angeles, California on a whim. I used my savings from babysitting, my first freelance graphic design jobs and my grocery store clerk shifts that summer to put money down for my first apartment on Hollywood Boulevard. I’d been there once with my college roommate the summer of 2019 and the thought of moving there never crossed my mind. However, the thought of staying in South Carolina with dreams of working in entertainment wasn’t adding up. I had moved to LA with one specific mindset I’ll never forget. I moved to LA to “influence the influencers.”
For context, when I moved to LA, it was the weirdest time. It was 2020. TikTokers were posting dancing videos, thousands were dying of a global pandemic, and politics were extremely divisive. I wanted to do what I do best and try my best to be a part of whatever the future would be and FOR GOOD.
I didn’t have a job in LA. Just a dream, a Honda Civic, and really a ton of faith that I was meant to be here. Now, three or so years later I’m extremely involved in the local community that is Los Angeles, CA. It wasn’t easy, and it’s still not perfect.
I’ve met incredible friends, had so many new experiences, met amazing creatives, found an insanely awesome local church, connected with my role models, and just have lived a fuller life that I wouldn’t have been exposed to in my mother’s new town of Summerville, South Carolina.
Transparently, right now, I’m between jobs. I just got laid off and am contemplating my next move. I’m not sure what that is but the one concrete thing I feel certain of is that I am meant to be in LA. Maybe my subconscious just likes the warm weather and kale white beans salads, but my soul screams every single say that I’m meant to stay to continue to influence the influencers. I’m not sure why I have this confidence in myself to love people of influence. I don’t know. Maybe I’m not meant to be the star, maybe I’m meant to serve the stars so that they can serve the world, and God was using the Disney channel as a pull to end up exactly where I’m meant to be at 24.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Jobs! jobs! jobs! There was a time where I was working @ Erewhon as a line cook and on prepack to pay my bachelor apartment rent. After three months of working at Erewhon, I was offered my first full-time role as a community manager at a local start-up.
friends have been so hard. I am someone who gets lonely easily, and making friends post-grad in a new city is not EASY. I was lucky enough to meet a bunch of people my age through my local church, mosaic. However, I actually find it quite difficult to maintain friendships outside of that. I have definitely met people out at clubs like the friend or local coffee shops, I’m pretty outgoing. but there are no real rituals, especially working from home for seeing people over and over again
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I graduated with a Master’s Degree in Campaign Strategy for Brand & Advertising (very girlbosstown) and went into TECH??? HUH! I actually graduated and went to work at Erewhon because I was so burnt out from school. I also knew the job hunt was going to take a while because I wasn’t going to settle for any 9-5. I didn’t want to work at an agency or a brand, I wanted to work for something extremely iconic and that I did. About 3 months into my cooking career, I got the call (or an email) I’d had an offer for a full-time role at a tech start-up called Geneva. This was the dream job (it’s so far off from being Hannah Montana, but I still loved it). My every day was iconic. I was flown out to Dallas, NYC, Chicago, and more to work with the team, to spearhead event activations, to meet members of the app’s community, and so much more. I feel like I earned about 10 years of brand marketing and community experience in two. I had an amazing team, and my boss was a huge mentor of mine. Unfortunately, after about two years of hard work, I was laid off. I realized that I really enjoyed my last job, and it unlocked new dreams. I now have new dreams about what the future of social media can look like and hope to pursue that moving forward.
While I pursue my personal career dreams of creating a way that our relationship with our phones is less about passing the time and more about staying connected to those we’ve shared IRL experiences with, I also am finally pursuing my childhood dreams of being a star.
So, what does this mean? I want to put out music. I want to be a content creator and have brand deals. I want to be creative for other awesome people. I shoot video & photo and love to execute fun, creative projects for my musician friends. I want to continue to take on clients and really build up my portfolio. I think I’m looking up to Petra Collins & Nadia Lee Cohen more than Hannah Montana these days. I don’t know exactly what my future career looks like, but I’m more inspired by girls who are professional vibe curators than politicians and journalists. IDK what that says about me and my burnout from my last job, but my values are definitely leaning towards starting a church in Hawaii over being the next president. At least for now. I still might want to be the president one day. I’ll get there.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
My BFF from Kindergarten to Fourth Grade, Audra, and I had a talking meter. This was how we measured how much we talked at sleepovers. I HATED silence. I HATED a lull in conversation. So, it was time to invent an imaginary tool to prevent any lack of conversation. After the talking meter was invented, we spent our recess, sleepovers, and more, making sure our talking meter was “at the highest level”. SO CUTE haha
Contact Info:
- Website: https://carlyadair.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlyroseadair/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carly-adair-5271bb148/
Image Credits
Abagail Halstead
