Entrepreneur Kristin Marquet Built FemFounder Content Brand With Thought Leadership Strategy

Entrepreneur: Kristin Marquet

Businesses: Marquet Media and FemFounder

Tilt: Working with female-founded, high-end businesses in specialized markets 

Primary Channels: Instagram (48.5K), The FemFounder Podcast

Other Channels: FemFounder Magazine

Time to First Dollar: First week

Revenue Streams: One-on-one services, digital frameworks and other content products, sponsorships, books

Our Favorite Actionable Advice: 

• Don’t start selling: Kristin says it’s important to build credibility and trust before you attempt to sell any product or service. Think guest blogging, media coverage, and social channels. (Helpful Resource from The Tilt: Use Guest Blogging to Grow Your Content Business.)
• Be consistent, not perfect: Showing up — even when you’re not seeing instant results — separates success from stagnation.
• Step on a scaling strategy: One-on-one services limit your revenue and time. Digital products, templates, memberships, courses, books, etc., allow your business to grow without you working more hours. 

The Story of Kristin Marquet

Kristin Marquet is a storyteller. 

She’s spent 17 years helping brands and businesses earn the opportunity to find their voice, share their store, and create authentic connections with audiences. She saw a need for PR solutions in niche, specialized markets and leaned in, turning her “passion for storytelling and strategic thinking to help clients elevate their visibility and credibility on a global stage.” 

But Kristin also has her own story. 

Turning-setback-into-success story

In 2008, millions of Americans faced mass corporate layoffs – including Kristin. “At first, it was a huge blow,” she recounts. She was working in the corporate consulting industry and envisioned a steady trajectory for her career. Instead, she found herself taking on freelance branding and PR work. 

“It started as a simple side hustle: I was helping a few small businesses polish their messaging and get local media coverage. Before I knew it, word of mouth spread, and my one-woman shop began growing into a real agency,” she explains.

A year later, Kristin launched Marquet Media and spent several years refining her brand, building specialized frameworks and services, and taking on new clients. She focused on high-end real estate and luxury brands, especially women-led and niche ventures. 

Her mission is to help businesses craft authentic stories that resonate. Sometimes, that success is a brand finally finding its voice and resonating with its audience. Sometimes, it’s the moment everything comes together when a client sees sales and audience growth. Sometimes, it’s landing top-tier PR opportunities for clients in publications like Forbes, Vogue, and The New York Times. 

“Knowing that my team and I played a part in that success keeps me pushing forward,” Kristin says. “The lessons we learn from each challenge only strengthen our strategies, so setbacks become stepping stones to a better approach.”

She kept pushing forward, and in 2017, Kristin took her brand one step further with FemFounder, a one-stop digital resource for female creatives, side hustlers, solopreneurs, and founders. She sees it as a platform where women can find both community and essential tools for business growth, including the FemFounder magazine and podcast. 

Focusing on growth first 

“Before selling anything,” Kristin says, “focus on positioning yourself as a thought leader. Establish credibility through guest posts, media features, or social content so that when you launch a product or service, people already trust you.”

Since its launch, Kristin has applied her own PR and content marketing experience to making FemFounder a go-to resource for women entrepreneurs and women-led businesses seeking branding and PR advice. 

Kristin breaks her growth strategy down into three stages:

• Building a foundation
• Leveraging owned and earned media
• Expanding to multiplatform experience

Kristin relied on organic audience growth efforts in the first few years. She looked at opportunities like guest blogging, word-of-mouth referrals, and collaborations with other entrepreneurs as building blocks. “I focused on high-impact media placements to establish authority,” Kristin explains. “This built credibility and attracted an audience that valued my insights.”

Once she had a firm foundation and a steadily growing audience, Kristin shifted to stage two to more intentional marketing strategies, using both earned media opportunities and owned content channels. She doubled down on her growth by focusing on email marketing, creating SEO-driven content, and building sustainable audience engagement on social media. She also added new resources to help further establish FemFounder as an expert resource, introducing PR and branding templates that would evolve into more branded content. 

With an established presence and audience and sustainable lead generation and growth strategies, Kristin moved to stage three: multiplatform expansion. These days, she focuses on high-profile collaborations and niche expansion. She’s also refined her efforts by leaning into thought leadership, reinforcing both Marquet Media’s and FemFounder’s value by introducing three proprietary frameworks to differentiate her brand. 

Pivoting from brand growth to monetization

Offering free resources and positioning FemFounder as an educational and community resource is great for brand growth, but maybe not for paying the bills. 

Kristin first offered one-on-one PR and branding services to a small audience of potential clients and was lucky to find quick success with that. She points to her concentrated focus on “high-value, results-driven work” to help her earn strong word-of-mouth referrals that gave her the initial momentum and validation. 

But looking back, Kristin sees more value in creating scalable revenue streams. While one-on-one services are great, they ultimately limit your income and time. “Once you establish authority, add digital products, templates, memberships, or courses that allow you to grow without working more hours,” she says.

In recent years, Kristin added scalable revenue streams to her brands, primarily digital products. She’s eyeing future expansion opportunities like exclusive membership programs for clients, expanding her digital offerings to feature products and courses for businesses that want PR advice without hiring an agency, and maybe even publishing another book. (Kristin has already penned several books, including Build Your Expertise: Simple Ways To Earn Big Media Coverage and Squash Your Competition and Dominate Your Marketplace.

She’s also taking a closer look at her existing products, like her three premiere frameworks – PRISM Ascend™, Dual Catalyst Visibility™, and Elevate Influence™ – for new ways to provide clients with high-value strategies. 

But while looking forward, Kristin also reflects on what she’s learned over the years. She struggled to balance big-picture growth and everyday execution: “In the early days, I tried to do everything — offering too many services, saying yes to every opportunity, and spreading myself too thin,” she says.

If she could go back and tell her younger self what she knows now, “I’d remind myself that niching down faster and focusing on high-impact visibility strategies would accelerate growth without burnout. I’d tell myself: ‘Trust your instincts, but scale smarter.’”

Advice for content entrepreneurs

In 17 years as a PR and branding expert, Kristin has learned a lot from her clients and her experience building two brands. But she also stays inspired and learning from others in her industry.

“I find inspiration in entrepreneurs and leaders who have built impactful brands with authenticity and resilience,” she says. “I admire those who push boundaries, challenge norms, and create meaningful connections through their work. Surrounding myself with smart, forward-thinking people and continuously learning helps me refine my approach and stay ahead in an ever-evolving landscape.”

And if you’re looking to Kristin for inspiration? She has a few parting pieces of wisdom to share: 

• Entrepreneurship isn’t just about business growth; it’s also about personal growth. She’s learned that “adaptability and self-trust are as important as strategy and execution. Surrounding myself with the right people, learning to pivot when needed, and staying focused on the long game has helped me push through uncertainty.” 
• Consistency beats perfection, especially when building your brand. Of course, you don’t want to put out mediocre content just for the sake of publishing regularly but don’t get caught up in perfectionism. Kristin points out that “showing up — even when you’re not seeing instant results — separates success from stagnation.” 
• Trust the process, refine your message, and own your narrative. Remember that you’re not just creating content or products – you’re also establishing trust and authority, promising your growing audience that your brand has genuine value for them. Deliver on that promise with your voice and share your story. 

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