Meet the Founder
Carrie Scharbo has spent her career recognizing consequential moments, explaining why they matter and turning ideas into action.
As an award-winning television journalist, she learned how to listen closely, ask difficult questions and translate complicated events into stories people could understand.
As an entrepreneur, she learned how to recognize when a market was about to change, reposition an existing business and execute before an opportunity passed.
Today, Carrie brings those experiences together through her speaking, founder strategy and advisory work, forthcoming book, and The Broad Agenda—her independent civic-media platform connecting decisions made by powerful people to the ways those decisions affect everyday lives.
From the Anchor Desk to Entrepreneurship
Carrie began her career in television news, reporting and anchoring stories that placed her inside communities during moments of consequence, uncertainty and change.
Journalism taught her to look beyond the obvious answer: Who is affected? What is being overlooked? Why does this matter now? What happens next?
Her work earned a Southeastern Emmy Award and several Associated Press Awards, but the most valuable skills she carried forward were listening, curiosity, credibility and the ability to recognize the human story inside a complicated set of facts. Those same skills would eventually lead her away from being in front of the camera and into entrepreneurship.
Recognizing the Moment Before the Market Moved
Carrie was one of the original founders of Case-Mate, which began by designing protective cases for Apple’s iPod and iPod nano.
Then Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld and announced Apple’s plans for the iPhone. Carrie and her partners recognized that the announcement represented more than a new product. It signaled a fundamental change in how people would use, carry and protect their mobile technology.
Case-Mate pivoted.
The company secured access to pre-release iPhone specifications, developed protective cases before the device reached consumers and partnered with AT&T so Case-Mate products were available on the day the original iPhone launched.
Case-Mate was one of only four companies globally offering protective cases at value pricing on launch day. It became a global brand within its first and was sold in Apple, Target, Wal-mart to name a few retailers.
The experience taught Carrie that opportunity does not always arrive as a fully formed idea. Sometimes it arrives as a signal—and the advantage belongs to the people prepared to recognize it.
Adapting When the World Changed Without Warning
Carrie founded William Grace in 2019 as an American lifestyle brand inspired by the classic elegance of the equestrian world. Its original purpose was to create thoughtfully designed accessories, home goods and products that made luxury feel accessible.
Then the pandemic changed what people and businesses needed almost overnight. Carrie repositioned William Grace around high-quality, thoughtfully designed face masks without abandoning the brand’s original commitment to style, comfort and everyday usefulness.
CNN became one of William Grace’s earliest mask customers, purchasing masks globally for its employees. William Grace was named the Official Mask Provider of the 2020, 2021 and 2022 National Horse Show, and Women’s Health subsequently recognized it among 20 companies offering some of the best face masks of the pandemic.
William Grace reached global customers within its first year.
Case-Mate required anticipating a market shift. William Grace required responding to a disruption no one had anticipated. Both demanded the ability to understand what people needed, preserve what made the brand distinctive and move before the moment passed.
Returning to Journalism With a Broader Perspective
Years after leaving television news, Carrie returned to journalism with something she had not possessed behind the anchor desk: the perspective of a founder, employer, consumer-brand builder and mother.
In 2025, she founded The Broad Agenda, an independent civic-media platform created primarily for Gen-X women who want to remain engaged without being overwhelmed. Through political analysis, candidate interviews, podcast conversations and a growing community across social media and Substack, Carrie helps people understand not only what is making headlines, but why it deserves their attention.
Turning Ideas Into Impact
Across journalism, entrepreneurship and civic media, Carrie has repeatedly asked the same questions: What is changing? What opportunity is that change creating? What should remain? What must move? Who can help? Why now?
Those questions became the MOMENT Framework and the foundation of Turning Ideas Into Impact. Carrie now uses that methodology through keynote speaking, founder strategy, workshops, a workbook and a forthcoming book about turning lived experience into meaningful work.
What Carrie Believes
Experience is evidence.
Curiosity should come before certainty.
A pivot is not necessarily a failure.
Storytelling is a leadership skill.
Impact requires action.
You do not need to feel completely ready.
Carrie is a Gen-X mother of two based outside Chicago. Motherhood informs the questions she asks about leadership, opportunity, public policy and the world the next generation will inherit.
We are not starting from nothing. We are starting with experience.