Emily Westerfield, Founder of Carrying Dreams
Name: Emily Westerfield
Founder: Carrying Dreams
Who is Emily Westerfield?
Emily Westerfield is a surrogacy expert, passionate surrogacy advocate, and a five-time gestational carrier. Emily is well-versed in the core processes and complexities along with the array of emotions associated with surrogacy. Her experiences have allowed her to share personal knowledge and expertise in consultations and the facilitation of journeys for both intended parents and surrogates, consistently setting them up for success. During her illustrious career, Emily has partnered with specialists including obstetricians, gynecologists, urologists, and reproductive endocrinologists along with community hospitals around the country to grow awareness of surrogacy.
In less than three sentences tell us about your company and what you do.
Carrying Dreams is not your ordinary family building agency – we're a passionate team of experts on a mission to make dreams come true! From surrogacy to egg-donation, our team is here to spread joy, love, and build families across the world. Carrying Dreams is a full service agency helping intended parents, egg donors and surrogates.
What does BEING a FoundHer mean to you?
To me, I find all FoundHers so incredibly admirable. It's one thing to succeed in your career, but to have BUILT that career with passion, grit, tears, maybe a little (or a lot of) wine and drive is not something for the weak. Being a FoundHer means time, energy, focus and the grind to dedicate your life and time to something greater than you. I LOVE the saying, being an entrepreneur/founder means living your life a few years like most people won't, so you can live the rest of your life like most people can't.
How do you support other female founders and women in business?
I always do my best to support other women founders and women in business by shopping with them (if possible), sharing on social media where I can, helping in fundraisers if applicable and finding ways to help raise other women up when I can.
At what point did you make your company a full time gig? How did you know the time was right?
I decided to go full time with surrogacy in 2018, though I started in 2014. The passion was always there (and it still hasn't faded) yet the ability to focus on more than that was cumbersome. When I was spending more time and energy on helping others with their journeys, in addition to mine, it became evident I needed to take the plunge and submit my whole self to surrogacy journeys.
Let’s talk social media—who handles it for your company (you, an internal team member, an outsourced solution?) and what is the secret to making it successful? What is the biggest challenge?
Carrying Dreams has an internal marketing guru who handles all social media. The posts are created, beautified and then approved by our directors. We do our absolute best to create posts encouraging engagement, are colorful and attention grabbing, and provide education or resources. Some posts are just to wish a happy holiday or weekend. Social media is an amazing, amazing tool to share stories and provide updates about the company and news, but it's also a wonderful place to reach an audience in which you wouldn't otherwise by newsletters, in-person engagements or calls.
How did you land your first client?
SUCH an exciting time!! Just by sharing my story and being open and honest about the truth behind what a complete, detailed surrogacy journey entails. It's not all puppies and rainbows and with each personal and professional experience, I learn more and more about how to help others navigate their journeys. Word of mouth started to spread from one great experience with my first clients.
What is something you do differently from the industry standard?
My personal experience as a several time surrogate is extremely beneficial when it comes to being able to talk to other surrogates or intended parents about what this process is like. I have been through the good, the bad and the ugly, and I don't shy away from sharing my experiences to help others. The other thing I do, that I believe most others don't is provide them with ALL the options from the very beginning as to how to proceed when it comes to navigating a surrogacy journey. I present them with the independent route, the agency route, how to choose the right agency, provide them with resources, etc. Most agencies try to sell, sell, sell. That's not me. These journeys are too personal and too intimate to be motivated by selling. We are building families here - and that should be our main goal and bottom line.
What are three strategies you use to market your business, grow brand awareness and generate bottom line growth?
Social Media, in-person events and simply being open and sharing my story with anyone! The more people who know what I do, or understand a little bit more is someone who can share my name with someone else who may be interested in becoming a surrogate to help others, or is in need of a surrogate. I also try to be creative with different ways of generating bottom line growth - fundraising, shop, contests, etc.
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