She Built a $800 Million Agency From Her Closet

Carrita Cloud is the founder and CEO of Creativity Justified, the agency behind work for the NFL, Microsoft, Delta, Ochsner Health, the Saints and the Pelicans. Inc. named her to the 2025 Female Founders 500.

Her team has managed over $800 million in advertising dollars.She started it in a closet. Seven months pregnant, just fired, insurance gone, cold calling and cold emailing people who mostly said no.We got into all of it — the systems she built when it was still just her, how she actually got in the room with the NFL, and what COVID did to her retainers when it was still a small business agency.But the part that stopped us cold was the pricing story.

She bid $25,000 on a contract. Another Black woman on the other side called her and said if I submit this, they'll think you're a joke.

The lowest competing bid was $125,000.If you've ever wondered whether you're charging enough, this one is for you 🎧━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━WHAT WE GET INTO▸ Getting fired at 7 months pregnant and starting over the next morning▸ The department emails she made up when it was still only her▸ Why you need degrees of separation between you and your clients▸ Building 100+ email templates before hiring anybody▸ "We invite people into our chaos, then get mad when they fail in chaos"▸ Why most people's VA experience goes wrong▸ How she actually got to $800 million in managed ad spend▸ Pitching the NFL on a webinar — and it going all the way to Roger Goodell▸ What COVID did to her retainers, and the pivot that saved the agency▸ The $25K bid vs the $125K bid▸ Why she took pricing off her website▸ Advice for anyone leaving corporate right now▸ "I love my family too much to ever hire them"▸ Niceness vs kindness, and why her team is not a family▸ The two hires she'd make again every single time▸ How to actually get in front of Fortune 500 clients▸ Her rich lesson: the money conversation nobody has with new founders━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━FOLLOW CARRITA CLOUDCreativity Justified━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━RICH LESSONS PODCASTHosted by Sevetri Wilson Taylor and Sheena Allen🎧 LISTEN & SUBSCRIBEApple Podcasts: Spotify: ▶️ WATCH & SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE / @richlessonspodcast 📲 FOLLOW RICH LESSONSInstagram: / richlessonspodcast TikTok: / richlessonspodcast ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #RichLessons #BlackWomenInBusiness #AgencyLife #Pricing #KnowYourWorth #Entrepreneurship #MarketingAgency #BlackEntrepreneurs #WomenFounders #SmallBusiness #BusinessSystems #NFL #BusinessPodcast #FounderStory #Fortune500