Katie Fay, Recognized by Influential Women, Serves as Co-Founder and Owner of FlowDeck Studios
Katie Fay is an entrepreneur, livestream strategist, and on-camera host operating at the intersection of live commerce, storytelling, and human-centered leadership. She is the Co-Founder and Owner of FlowDeck Studios, a Los Angeles–based studio focused on high-performance livestream commerce and ethical creator operations. In just six months since launching the company, Fay has helped scale live shopping experiences for multiple brands while building an operational model that prioritizes transparency, sustainable workflows, and creator well-being alongside strong commercial performance.
At FlowDeck Studios, Fay and her team specialize in livestream production, brand partnerships, creator support, and account management services designed for the fast-growing social commerce ecosystem. She has worked with leading consumer brands including ColourPop Cosmetics, Beauty Creations Cosmetics, Anker, GNC, Neuro Gum, and Goli, contributing to livestream campaigns that have generated more than $1 million in gross merchandise value. What distinguishes FlowDeck’s approach is not only performance, but its emphasis on ethical operations, creator sustainability, and long-term relationship building.
Fay’s path to entrepreneurship has been highly unconventional. After leaving high school, she pursued culinary arts at The Art Institute of Michigan. When the program later closed due to fraud, she pivoted into the professional world, eventually working in event management at Continental Services within the global headquarters of American Axle & Manufacturing in Detroit. During this period, she balanced demanding professional responsibilities while also caring for family members facing terminal illness and navigating military-related challenges within her family. These life experiences shaped her resilience and led her to reevaluate her priorities, ultimately guiding her toward a career rooted in purpose, adaptability, and creative independence.
After leaving Michigan and relocating first to Denver and then to Los Angeles, Fay quickly entered the emerging TikTok Live commerce space. Within a week of arriving in Los Angeles, she secured three livestream hosting roles, launching her career as a professional on-camera host and live commerce strategist. That rapid entry into the creator economy became the foundation for her current entrepreneurial work. Today, she runs FlowDeck Studios alongside her partner, Michael Castro, combining her expertise in livestream production and audience conversion with his background in finance and account management.
What began as informal operations in rented meeting spaces—often in local libraries in Santa Monica—quickly evolved into a structured studio business as brand demand increased. Fay’s leadership philosophy is rooted in the belief that strong businesses are built by supported people. As a result, she actively advocates for fair treatment of livestream hosts, transparent business practices, and leadership models grounded in empathy rather than pressure or exploitation. Her approach reflects a broader mission to elevate standards in the rapidly expanding live commerce industry.
Fay is also currently writing a book about her unconventional journey, tentatively titled The Unexpected Benefits of a Mental Breakdown. The book explores how life’s most difficult experiences can become catalysts for clarity, redirection, and personal transformation.
She attributes her success to a combination of luck, planning, happenstance, community, and love—but emphasizes that passion is the driving force behind everything she builds. Fay believes passion is not simply enthusiasm, but an active and consuming force that fuels innovation, persistence, and resilience. In her view, sustainable success requires individuals to deeply love what they do, as passion becomes the foundation for overcoming fear, criticism, and uncertainty.
She also emphasizes that passion plays a central role in team building and hiring. At FlowDeck Studios, she prioritizes working with individuals who demonstrate genuine enthusiasm and alignment with the mission of the work. For Fay, passion is not optional—it is essential to long-term creative and operational success.
When reflecting on the best career advice she has received, Fay highlights the “count to 10 rule,” a practice that encourages individuals to pause for ten seconds before responding in any situation. She credits this principle with strengthening her communication style, emotional regulation, and decision-making. By creating space between stimulus and response, she believes leaders can move away from impulsive reactions and toward more thoughtful, intentional engagement.
Fay notes that many individuals feel pressure to respond immediately in professional environments, often leading to miscommunication or reactive decision-making. In contrast, intentional pauses allow for clarity and better outcomes. She emphasizes that taking time to think is not a weakness but a leadership strength that improves both personal and professional interactions.
Fay’s advice to young women entering the livestream commerce and digital media industry centers on authenticity, emotional awareness, and self-trust. She encourages individuals to pursue what they genuinely love and to remain grounded in their own identity rather than external expectations. According to Fay, passion should guide career decisions, and individuals should continue exploring their interests until they find meaningful alignment and fulfillment.
“Influential women raise their voices when something is wrong. Stand up for marginalized groups and when it comes to business…. Leave deceiving tactics to the men. My pricing is transparent because I believe in honesty. This is what true influential women do.”
She also acknowledges that ambition and pressure can lead to burnout, anxiety, or self-doubt. In those moments, Fay encourages stepping back, resting, and recalibrating rather than pushing through fear. She emphasizes that emotional well-being is essential to long-term success and that recognizing personal limits is a form of strength.
Fay further advocates for transparency in leadership and the thoughtful use of tools such as AI, while maintaining strong boundaries around creative ownership and personal protection. She emphasizes balance—being open without being vulnerable to exploitation, and being confident without being driven by fear. Her leadership philosophy is grounded in love: love for oneself, love for one’s work, and love for others.
Fay also stresses the importance of community and mutual support among women, while encouraging empathy across all professional relationships. She cautions against fear-based thinking, noting that fear can distort judgment and limit innovation. Instead, she promotes leadership rooted in understanding, patience, and compassion.
In discussing the biggest challenges within her industry, Fay identifies fear as a dominant force shaping workplace culture. She notes that fear of failure, job insecurity, and performance pressure often lead to burnout and high turnover. According to Fay, fear-based management undermines creativity, trust, and long-term organizational success.
While acknowledging that healthy caution has its place, she argues that fear used as a control mechanism is ultimately destructive. In her view, strong businesses are not built through fear, but through clarity, trust, and empowerment.
At the core of Fay’s values is honesty. She considers honesty essential in both her personal and professional life, believing that it simplifies communication and strengthens relationships even when it is uncomfortable. Dishonesty, she notes, creates complexity, mistrust, and unnecessary conflict.
Fay emphasizes that honesty does not require oversharing, but rather clear and transparent communication about intentions, expectations, and circumstances. In her professional work, she prioritizes openness with clients and collaborators to ensure alignment and trust. In her personal life, she values direct communication and emotional openness with family and close relationships, believing that addressing issues directly leads to healthier and more sustainable connections.
Through her work at FlowDeck Studios and her growing influence in livestream commerce, Katie Fay continues to champion a model of leadership grounded in passion, honesty, and human-centered innovation—reshaping how live commerce experiences are built, led, and sustained.
www.flowdeckstudios.com
Learn More about Katie Fay:
Through her Influential Women profile, https://influentialwomen.com/connect/Katie-Fay
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