Kella Farris

“I grew up listening to country music––Barbara Mandrell, the Judds, Alabama,” Kella Farris says in her office on Music Row. “I remember being nine years-old and staring at a Clint Black album I got for Christmas, then being amazed when I realized he wrote all his own songs. Now I get to give back to creative people like them––people I just really love and respect.”

That sense of grateful admiration––coupled with finely honed expertise and an independent streak––has defined Kella’s career for more than a decade. After early roles with Alabama’s Jeff Cook and Flood, Bumstead, McCready, and McCarthy, she set out on her own to open the Kella Stephenson Company, which she led for eight years. “It all started with songwriters,” she says with a smile. Today, her clients have collectively written more than 100 no. 1 songs––and counting––while top-tier recording artists round out her roster.

In 2015, Kella partnered with Stephanie Self and Catherine Moore to launch Farris, Self & Moore, LLC (FSM)––a boutique business management and financial planning company that specializes in the unique needs of hit songwriters and major recording artists. Kella is most passionate about FSM’s financial planning services. Time and time again, she has witnessed what customized, big-picture strategy coupled with daily follow-through can achieve. “I love being able to explain what it means financially when an artist or songwriter signs a contract––publishing, recording, catalog sale, any type,” Kella says. “That’s the team member I aim to be: the one who can make these complex financial agreements easy to understand.”

Kella is currently on the Board of Directors for the Country Music Association where she served as President and Chairman of the Board in 2023 and 2024.  A member of Leadership Music (class of 2014), the Recording Academy and ACM, Kella remains active in a variety of ways with her alma mater Auburn University, where she earned a B.S. in finance as well as her MBA. She has been named to 2022, 2023 & 2024 Billboard’s Top Business Managers list and 2023 Billboard’s Women in Music.

When the CFP®-certified leader isn’t advising clients or standing by the front of house at a client’s show, Kella enjoys traveling to favorite spots including Sedona, Arizona; Highlands, North Carolina; or spending time on the family farm outside of Nashville, TN with her husband and two children.

Kella’s Favorites

  • 1981 CJ7 Jeep

  • Toomer’s Corner Lemonade

  • 1980’s Country Music

  • Crema Coffee

  • Outdoors with family

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