Cassie Kelley: Country’s Womanista
Cassie Kelley has several claims to fame. She’s the wife of Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley, she was a publicist working with some of country music’s top stars for many years, and now she’s #girlboss of one of the fastest growing lifestyle websites, Womanista.
The website originally started as a blog, a passion project, as Cassie shared her life and interests as she traveled the world with Lady A. The unique and identifying name, though, was all luck.
“I was brainstorming with my husband,” Cassie tells Sounds Like Nashville. “If I want to talk about the things that I think are unique to womanhood, things that I really enjoy about being a woman, what does that really mean? There’s fashionista that’s all encompassing with fashion. There’s decorista, that’s a coffee table book that I have. I felt like Womanista was something that felt like it was all encompassing of womanhood and everything I was talking about. When you say Womanista you know immediately what the vibe of that brand is.”
The first hurdle when starting any type of online business is securing the domain. Cassie credits luck again in this step of the process because no one else had thought to purchase Womanista. In 2012, Cassie started blogging and finding her voice and audience.
“The challenges are always when you’re writing to an audience is finding what’s natural for you and also resonates with your audience,” she says. “In the beginning, you’re finding what works. For instance, I didn’t do a ton of beauty posts in the beginning but the ones that I did, the response was huge.”
Over the next three years she was able to grow the site and in June 2015, she partnered with the digital company behind 247 Sports and ComicBook.com, and re-launched Womanista as a lifestyle brand.
“That’s one of those instances where you follow your passion and something you want to do, it can turn into something you never dreamed it could,” Cassie says. “It’s truly started as a fun creative outlet. I love to write and I love to write about stuff I like. Over time as it grew on its own, that was even bigger than I ever thought it would be. After the partnership merge this summer, it was a legitimate business and that was for sure bigger than I ever dreamed it would be.”
The site now generates more than two million unique visitors a month and has more than three million Facebook followers. So what’s next for Womanista? Cassie says the possibilities are limitless. Maybe she’ll write a book. Maybe Womanista will branch out into merchandising. If it’s part of the female experience, there’s a possibility Womanista will cover it.
*Photo By Skip Hopkins
