❝Story31:30
The cold call to The Sun that sold out GHD straighteners
In her first agency job at Sticky Eyes, Carrie was handed GHD PR with no training beyond 'write press releases and call journalists'. Her first call, to Vogue, ended with a hang-up. She kept dialling and reached Ellie, beauty editor at The Sun, who happened to moonlight as a hairdresser and was doing Ellie Goulding's hair that weekend. If the copper gold straighteners arrived by the next morning, she'd use them and write it up. The piece ran, GHD sold out, and more coverage followed — Carrie's first lesson in both PR mechanics and resilience.
“I remember the moment that I first rang a journalist and it was um one of the first journalists that I rang was someone at…”
“if you can get me in by tomorrow morning, I'll use the straighteners and I'll write a piece in The Sun about it”
❝Story1:02:00
The Apprentice audition that funded a business she never joined the show for
Nudged by a colleague to apply for TV, Carrie applied to The Apprentice after a few glasses of wine and was called to London within days, with two days to write a business plan. At the audition, 20 candidates were lined up with numbers on the floor and given seconds each to argue why they should go through the single door. She misread her number as a nine, went red — then stepped forward under pressure and won the slot on personality rather than credentials. She reached the final round, was told to seek private investment instead, and someone following the process offered her the money that launched Rise at Seven.
“if I'm in that room, I need to stand out personality-wise”
“I haven't gotten the show, but they've told me to go get private investment.”
❝Story1:11:30
Launching a rival agency from a competitor's own conference stage
Carrie and her co-founder Stephen were still booked to speak at SearchLeeds — the conference owned by the agency they'd just left — because the CEO judged a two-person startup harmless. Stephen opened the event, normally a welcome to the host's conference, with the Rise at Seven logo instead. Carrie was in the audience, petrified. The stunt cost some friendships but gained thousands of Twitter followers overnight in front of a few-thousand-person room, and signalled to a market with no clear leader that a disruptor had arrived.
“he opened it with a Rise at Seven logo”
“You know, purple cow. You got to stand out. You got to take risks sometimes.”
❝Story1:15:30
Winning Missguided as a two-person agency with borrowed 'staff'
A 40-minute conference talk put Carrie in front of Missguided's head of digital, who invited her to pitch as a wild card against an already-chosen agency. With only herself and her co-founder, she asked friends including Will to attend and pose as her team — then opened the pitch by admitting they didn't work for her, promising to hire them the next day if she won. The deck was simply 'if we were running Missguided's marketing strategy, this is what we would do'. They won the global account on the spot, triggering a call from Pretty Little Thing offering double, which she declined out of loyalty, and roughly 65 inbound brands.
“I need you to come to a meeting with me on Monday and pretend to be my staff.”
“but if you if we win this account, I'll hire them tomorrow”
❝Story46:30
Made redundant at three months, then tweeting her way into the next job
Carrie was made redundant from her first agency after three months, not for performance but because the agency lost a client — her first lesson that headcount cuts follow revenue and aren't personal. Under pressure with £850 monthly rent against an £850 monthly salary, she skipped the careers page entirely and tweeted the director of Branded3, who had posted the job ad, saying she wanted it. She was invited in, met the director and CEO, and was offered the role that week — a job she stayed in for around seven years.
“they lose revenue, they have to cut heads. And I was like okay, so I learned not to take it personal.”
“I think when I'm under pressure, I do things out of the ordinary.”
❝Story12:30
The road of grief: potholes that get shallower over time
After her dad died suddenly of a heart attack when she was 15, Carrie received free school-arranged counselling, available to under-16s who have lost a parent. The counsellor drew grief as a long road covered in potholes — early ones deep enough that you fall in and don't come out for weeks or months, but further along they get shallower and less frequent. It isn't moving on; it just stops tripping you up as much. Her second tip is to keep communicating: she used to text her dad's old mobile number even though the messages bounced back.
“these potholes get shorter and shorter, and they get less”
“And the second thing is, this might sound silly, but write letters. Like, communicate.”