"I grew up listening to country music—Barbara Mandrell, the Judds, Alabama," Kella Farris says. "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 work with 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 two decades. Her early work included roles alongside Alabama's Jeff Cook and in other Nashville business management firms, where she gained insight into the financial needs of successful songwriters and recording artists. Over time, she identified an opportunity to serve songwriters who needed advisors fluent in both the creative process and the financial complexity of publishing income. In 2006, she launched the Kella Stephenson Company.

"It all started with songwriters," she says. For eight years, she built a reputation serving the creators behind country's biggest hits. In 2015, Kella partnered with Stephanie Self and Catherine Moore to expand that vision and co-found Farris, Self & Moore, a boutique firm that could serve both major songwriters and touring artists with institutional-quality expertise and boutique-level relationships. The firm has since grown to four partners with the addition of Stephanie Alderman. Today, FSM represents more than 60 clients behind more than 100 No. 1 songs with a 35-person team.

A lifelong country music fan with deep appreciation for the industry's history and traditions, Kella brings CFP® expertise to an approach centered on long-term wealth strategy: catalog legacy, multi-generational planning, and decisions that position clients for decades rather than individual deals. Her client base spans major touring artists and award-winning songwriters, each requiring nuanced understanding of vastly different income structures and career trajectories. "I love being able to explain what it means financially when an artist signs a contract—publishing, recording, catalog sale, any type," she says. "That's the team member I aim to be: the one who can make these complex financial agreements easy to understand."

Kella served as President and Chairman of the Country Music Association Board of Directors in 2023-2024 and continues to serve on the board. She has been included multiple times in Billboard's Women in Music and Top Business Managers lists. She is a member of Leadership Music, The Recording Academy, and Academy of Country Music. An Auburn graduate (B.S. in finance and MBA), she lives in Nashville with her husband and two children and enjoys traveling to Sedona, AZ, Highlands, NC, and spending time on the family farm outside Nashville.