“5 things I wish someone told me before I became a CEO” With Carla Williams Johnson

An Interview with Phil La Duke

You’ve got to believe in yourself and forget what others may or may not say. For a very long time, I had a hard time dealing with this. I would hide or not say what I mean out of shear fear of offending someone or being misunderstood. Then one day it dawned on me: I wouldn’t be in the position I am in now, if I didn’t know what I was doing. I like to think of myself as the master of my industry and run with that feeling. I’ve learned it’s bad to say nothing and worse to sound like someone else. So, I just get out there and do it and people love me for it.

As a part of our series about powerful women leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Carla Williams Johnson, CEO of Carli Communications LLC. Known simply as Carli, she is extremely passionate about helping others and giving back, volunteering her time and skills wherever she can. When she’s not working, she can usually be found in the company of her adult daughter and infant son in the beautiful Caribbean twin island Republic of Trinidad & Tobago.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

Having worked in the field of marketing, advertising and communications for over fifteen years with some of the top advertising agencies, I made my entire life building the dreams of others. Here I am, working my fantastically fabulous ‘buns’ off while others built their dreams and made money on my strength.

My colleagues would always say I should open my own business because I was so talented with such great ideas. A voice inside me said I could do it but fear is such a powerful thing, especially fear of the unknown.

In 2016. I was working a traditional 8–4 and was extremely unhappy, physically sick and…