From cultivating a loyal fanbase of over 1.5 million people to co-owning a successful beverage company, Holly Valentine is the perfect example of a self-made entrepreneur who has built her success through consistently learning and believing in herself.
Despite excelling in college, Holly took an opportunity with a renowned marketing agency and left college her junior year to begin her job. She applied her studying habits and ability as a quick learner in the workplace and quickly established her role within the company. Holly’s position as a marketing and branding strategist greatly prepared her for her own future career as a social media influencer. During this time, she created monthly content schedules for clients, linked talent with the most suitable campaigns, performed bookkeeping, and developed new business for the agency. It wasn’t until she was fired from her marketing role that Holly decided to pursue her own lingering dream of a career as an influencer. Holly says:
“Getting fired from my last job in marketing was the best motivation I could have ever asked for.”
Holly admits she was crushed at the time of her job termination, but proving people wrong became her biggest motivation for success, and she believes it was the push she needed to put herself out there and believe in herself. Fast forward two and a half years later and Holly has masterfully built a following of over 1.5 million followers on Instagram alone and has expanded her presence on social media across multiple platforms, including YouTube.
In addition to being a successful influencer, Holly is also the co-owner of a successful beverage and lifestyle company. During a trip to Napa with her co-founder, the two found themselves very inspired by the current trends in the beverage industry; however, they also realized the wine industry had been relatively slow in innovating marketing strategies to tailor to the new generation. It was then that they decided to develop their own beverage company that tailored to new customers coming of drinking age in a more edgy and fun way.
Holly has made a name for herself across multiple industries. From her vast accomplishments and experience as an entrepreneur and social media star. She shared a few key concepts with the hope to help others find success as well.
Keep your focus- Maintain focus on your core message or featured line of products. It’s important to set your brand’s foundation, get recognition, and build traction for the things you know will do well and sell. You only get one shot at being successful when you’re new, so don’t confuse people with too many things at once. Establish your foundation and then slowly build on it over time.
Mindset- It’s crucial that you are confident in whatever path you choose. At the end of the day, you must be your own source of motivation. If you are a model, you need to develop the confidence to walk into a conference room with prestigious professionals and demand their respect. If you work hard, your work will show for it, regardless of your background.
Humility- A make or break quality when building a team is the ability to remain humble. It’s important to understand how to delegate and regulate your own ego. Even if you’re someone’s boss, if they possess more relevant experience than you, then let your employee be the expert and listen to their ideas. As unpopular as this opinion is, I (Holly) would rather hire someone with a strong work history and good network of connections than someone with a college education and neither of the other two.
Be authentic- When building an engaged audience, it’s critical to remain authentic with your followers. Anyone can take photos and videos, but it takes creativity and transparency to allow your followers to actually get to know you. Stay authentic to the brand you have built and continue to build trust between you and your audience.
Holly’s greatest success in life has been not giving up despite facing many adversities along the way. Overcoming self-doubt and pushing through difficult times has led Holly to a life beyond her wildest dreams. Both being a social media influencer and owning a company require a lot of creativity and networking, and Holly is extremely grateful that she is able to wake up and do these things each day. Holly is also passionate about female empowerment and hopes that her journey inspires women worldwide to work hard and establish themselves in the workplace, no matter what their backgrounds might be. Holly is definitely an entrepreneur to look out for in 2020 as well as many years to come.
We strongly recommend keeping up with Holly Valentine on her YouTube channel and Instagram.