Meet Caley Adams, Founder & Creative Director of Wildes District

Copy-of-Website-Header-Template-1

Describe your business in a few words:

Caley Adams is the Founder & Creative Director of Wildes District, an NYC-based design studio that specializes in emerging women’s and e-commerce brands. Wildes District works closely with founders to build meaningful experiences that span multiple touchpoints — including brand, web, app, print, packaging, and more. Caley has over a decade of design experience working for some of the world’s most celebrated brands, including Chanel, The Row, Rolex, Warby Parker, Birchbox, Ralph Lauren, and ALDO.

After spending years building larger brands, she turned her focus toward working with early-stage companies to help them navigate the many phases and challenges of brand development, from pre-launch to post-launch life and created Wildes District in 2018. Today, she leads the Wildes District team and partners with founders to help build their brands from the ground up, with visually compelling but scalable design. Their clients include some of the most of the moment names today including Andie Swim, Aurate, Kin Euphorics, Chief, Coterie, Elix Healing, and Margaux.

What was your background prior to starting your own business?

I worked in the design field for almost a decade before starting Wildes District. I worked at several agencies, I worked in-house, at startups, at bigger companies, at smaller companies, as a freelancer, everything. I worked a lot within the fields of fashion, beauty, luxury, and e-commerce design.

Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

No! I think it just kind of found me. I felt that I had a lot to offer by diving off and starting my own business, but I wouldn’t have done that if I felt there wasn’t a need for it/a market opportunity.

Take us back to when you first launched your business, what was your marketing strategy to get the word out, and did it go as planned?

All of our marketing and new business was word-of-mouth (and mostly still is). We love the brands we work with. Like us, almost all of our clients are women running businesses, and so there’s a lot of mutual support there. We were not expecting this level of referrals and so that was really nice, and as such we haven’t had to put as much effort to date into business development.

What is the accomplishment you are the most proud of to date?

I’m really proud of being named one of GDUSA’s “People to Watch” for 2022. It’s a bit nerdy, but I used to read this graphic design magazine as a student in college dreaming of my career…and so it felt really exciting to be included in the issue this year.

Do you believe in work/life balance? What are some of your best tips?

Work/life balance is really a tough thing to nail down. There are times where work takes over everything, and similarly there are times where life takes over everything. I think this is just the way life is, and it’s a hard thing to try to tame sometimes. Whenever a big swing in one direction or the other happens, I try to accept the moment, and acknowledge that it’s just a season of life that it will pass, because it always does.

What have you achieved recently that you’d like to celebrate with our community?

My home was featured on Apartment Therapy, which was fun and exciting. They did a home tour and put it on their site and Instagram. https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/caley-adams-colonial-house-tour-photos-37044616

What’s next for your business? What can we expect to see over the next few years?

We are starting to hone in even more on our specific niche. We are doubling down on women-led businesses and businesses that are targeting female consumers. We’re starting to say a lot more that doesn’t align to our belief systems, and that’s an exciting place to be. We’re producing work that makes us proud.

What excites you about being an Entreprenista League member?

Meeting fellow women entrepreneurs!

Learn more about the Entreprenista League and join today!

Share it!

Posted in
Tags

Leave a Comment





How Jerri Evans Took Her Business Online During the COVID Pandemic

When Jerri was a teenager, her life turned upside once her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Her mother completely transformed the family’s way of living through food. After Jerri’s mom passed, Jerri left a stable career to go back home. That’s when she decided to continue her mother’s legacy, and forge her own.  Today, we…

Scaling Strategies to Elevate Your Business with Carlyn Bushman

For new businesses or even businesses simply looking to expand, understanding the importance and benefits of setting a foundation that supports uninhibited growth is key. Carlyn’s experience in manifesting success in this area comes directly through creating businesses of her own from the ground up. Through this work, she often gets questions like: How do…

Disrupting an Industry with Alexandra Keating of Uni

Like many Entreprenistas, Alexandra always knew she wanted to run a business, and she has—multiple businesses, in fact. When she became obsessed with the fact that the personal care industry uses a lot of single-use products, she knew the solution and she knew her next business.  Today, we sit down with Alexandra Keating, founder of…

The DHL Express GoGreen Giveaway is Helping Entreprenistas Go Global in a Sustainable Way

In Partnership with DHL Express We speak to eCommerce founders every day that are looking to launch, scale and grow their businesses. One of the biggest things to consider for growth: international shipping – but the question remains, how do small businesses ship internationally and is there a way to do so sustainably?  In a…

How to Deal with your Team’s Burn Out

As an Entreprenista, your business is not just a job, it’s a passion. You put in long hours, sweat and tears, and endless effort to make it successful. However, this can often lead to burnout, especially during times of high stress. And with May being National Mental Health Awareness Month, it’s important to address this…

Tapping Into The Creativity with Catalina Escallon of Noodo Studio

While Catalina Escallon is an artist, and by definition, a creative person, she realized that a lot of people did not view themselves that way as they got older. So she and her partner decided to start a studio that helps people realize that there are many ways to be creative.  In today’s episode, we…

Building Your Personal Brand with Stacey Ross Cohen of Co-Communications

Stacey grew up around entrepreneurs, so it’s safe to say that being a business owner is in her blood, and she has been doing it successfully for well over two decades. But her newest passion is helping the next generation make sense and leverage the digital age to build a personal brand that helps them…

Learning The Heart and Soul of SEO with Meg Clarke of Clapping Dog Media

Like many Entreprenistas, Meg left the corporate world once she had kids and started to work on her own. She had experience with web design, so that’s what she did, before she realized that having the perfect website is meaningless if no one finds it. So she dug in and learned everything there was to…

Social Media Marketing 101 with Sarah Bugeja of Later

Sarah has spent her career constantly learning new skills—both on the job and off—to further her career. She also mastered learning when it’s time to move on to the next opportunity. Now she’s here to share her story and also her tips and tricks regarding all things social media.  Today, we sit down with Sarah…

Mamaprenista Candice D’Angelo reflects on Launching ‘The Selling Lab’

Below is a brief introduction about Candice D’Angelo and her business, The Selling Lab: Candice D’Angelo – a corporate dropout with 12+ years of sales experience – is the founder of The Selling Lab, a sales training agency where online and offline businesses alike come to level up their sales skills and build custom trainings.…

Founder Jené Hernandez, of Mixology Marketing, on Helping Businesses Stand Out and Achieve their Marketing Goals

Hello Jené! Please share a brief introduction about yourself and your business: As one of the leading marketing agencies in Los Angeles, Mixology Marketing blends creativity and strategy to create bespoke marketing experiences for our clients. From digital marketing and social media to content creation, website development, and impactful events, we take a unique approach…

How To Create The Best Brand Message For Your Business with Xindi Soh of By Xindi

Over the course of her business, Xindi has had to confront herself and get a grasp on who she is, what she stands for, and what she wants. But the ride hasn’t always been what she was expecting. Now she preaches leaning into the hard stuff and believing in yourself, and it seems to be…

How To Find Unique Ways To Fund Your Business with Arion Long of Femly

Our Entreprenista of the Year: Arion Long has always been an overachiever; she started college at 15 years old. But one thing that threatened to hold her back was her periods. After going to many gynecologists, she found one that not only listened to her, but told her something that would change the course of…

Katherine Wallisch on Empowerment Consulting for Parents and Clinicians of Non-Speaking Children

Hello Katherine! Please share a brief introduction about yourself and your business: As a speech-language pathologist specializing in Autism and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), I have created a comprehensive empowerment program for parents and clinicians. My name is Katherine Wallisch, and I am the mother of a 7-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter. Growing…

Digitizing Art For A Business with Sally King McBride of The Letter Nest

When Sally’s friends and family started having children, she looked for gifts that would be meaningful and lasting. As an artist, she decided to create watercolor name paintings. Soon, the commissions started flooding in and she had a proof of concept for a business.  In today’s episode, we sit down with Sally King McBride, founder…