Founder . Marketer . Business Coach. Senior Designer

Ambitious about work.
Protective of life.

I’m Carly. I build brands, question the rules and talk about making a living without giving your whole life to it.

A business brain.
A creative heart.
A healthy disregard for “should”.

I’m a founder, senior designer and marketer with over two decades of creative experience. My work brings together brand strategy, design and the practical business of getting an idea out into the world.

Through Carly Made and Make & Market, I’m interested in helping good people build good businesses. The kind that serve a community, solve a real problem and make room for a life.

I’m also a mother, a home educator and a woman questioning the version of success we’re supposed to want. I talk about flexible working, identity beyond motherhood, ethical marketing and opting out of expectations that no longer fit. I bring professional experience and a life still in progress. There’s room for ambition, uncertainty and changing your mind in the same conversation.

Conversations worth having

For podcasts, panels and rooms full of people ready to ask a different question.

What happens when we design work around the life we want? An honest conversation about self-employment, motherhood, caring responsibilities and the gap between being your own boss and actually having freedom.
You can be driven and still question the ladder. Exploring the pressure to be constantly productive, monetise every interest and measure a good life by how much we get done.
How do you make yourself visible without becoming someone you don’t recognise? A practical conversation about clear positioning, thoughtful design and selling your work without manufactured urgency or an online persona.
Finding your identity alongside motherhood, starting again and taking your ideas seriously before you feel completely ready. The messy middle deserves a microphone, too.