With Tracy Holland, a remarkable founder, investor, Executive Chairman, and entrepreneur, renowned for her profound expertise in the beauty and wellness realm. With a remarkable global track record of incubating and launching consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, Tracy has firmly established herself as an authority in her field.

Throughout her career, Tracy has been committed to forging new paths and cultivating success stories by emphasizing innovation, amplifying authentic voices, and empowering women entrepreneurs in the beauty and personal care industry. Her invaluable contributions and unwavering dedication have earned her recognition and respect from peers and industry experts alike.

Having held executive positions at numerous standout companies, Tracy co-founded the esteemed HATCHBEAUTY brand incubator in 2009. Her strategic prowess and market development acumen have positioned her as one of the leading innovators in the industry, shaping the landscape of beauty and personal care.

Tracy’s exceptional achievements have been duly acknowledged with various awards and honors, including the prestigious 2019 Fashion and Beauty Award for Beauty Service Provider of the Year and the esteemed EY Entrepreneur of the Year accolade in 2017. Additionally, she has been elected to The Committee of 200, a distinguished organization comprised of the world’s most accomplished women business leaders.

In this conversation, Tracy shares her insights on the key to success – that is, mindset. She also talks about how to escape the cycle of uncertainty, the concept of the “Inner Fifth,” the fight-or-flight mode of fear, and her passion for entrepreneurship. She envisions creating a supportive platform for female entrepreneurs to connect, be heard, and receive wisdom. Tracy’s wisdom and experiences promise to inspire and empower us.

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Biggest takeaways (or quotes) you don’t want to miss:

• Mindset is the key to success.
• How do you escape the cycle of feeling uncertainty?
• What is the “Inner Fifth”?
• When you’re in fight or flight mode, you’re not thinking rationally.”

“Being an entrepreneur had a lot to do with self expression, creativity, and being able to move at a pace that felt right (for me).”

-Tracy Holland

Check out these highlights:

• 13:20 The most damaging emotion to your body, mind, soul, spirit and energetics.
• 18:35 Tracy shares how she started at Hatch Beauty.
• 35:34 Hear Tracy share on the challenge and discipline of change, and mourning the letting go of the race from “here to there” …
• 41:01 Tracy’s advice to those struggling with hiring a good coach.
• 43:13 Hear about the core pillars that Tracy covers in her work with her clients.
• 44:30 Tracy shares her final thoughts – you will not want to miss this juicy tidbit!!

How to get in touch with Tracy:

On Social Media:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyholland/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracy_holland_mindset/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/potential2power

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/potentialtopowerhouse

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi1xMs6fhUYN89JEphB4Tzw

You can also learn more about Tracy by visiting her website here.

Imperfect Show Notes

We are happy to offer these imperfect show notes to make this podcast more accessible to those who are hearing impaired or those who prefer reading over listening. While we would love to offer more polished show notes, we are currently offering an automated transcription (which likely includes errors, but hopefully will still deliver great value), below:

GGGB Intro  00:00

Here’s what you get on today’s episode of Guts, Grit and Great Business®…

Tracy Holland  00:04

If I were to pick all of the emotions on the emotional scale, everything that exists the thing that I think is the most damaging to your body, to your mind, to your soul, to your spirit, to your energetics, everything is that emotion of fear, because it totally disconnects you from your heart and your coherence and your wisdom. And it puts you into what I call that fight or flight mode. When you’re in fight or flight, you’re not thinking rationally.

GGGB Outro  00:37

The adventure of entrepreneurship and building a life and business you love, preferably at the same time is not for the faint of heart. That’s why Heather Pearce Campbell is bringing you a dose of guts, grit and great business stories that will inspire and motivate you to create what you want in your business and life. Welcome to the Guts, Grit and Great Business® podcast where endurance is required. Now, here’s your host, The Legal Website Warrior®, Heather Pearce Campbell.

Heather Pearce Campbell  01:05

Alrighty, welcome. I am Heather Pearce Campbell, The Legal Website Warrior®. I’m an attorney and legal coach based here in Seattle, Washington, serving online information entrepreneurs throughout the US and around the world. Welcome to another episode of Guts, Grit and Great Business®. I am super excited to bring you our guest today. Tracy Holland, and welcome Tracy.

Tracy Holland  01:31

Thank you. I’d love the name.

Heather Pearce Campbell  01:34

Oh, the name of the podcast.

Tracy Holland  01:36

Yeah, it love it. Exactly. That’s exactly what it takes too.

Heather Pearce Campbell  01:41

You know I love naming things. I don’t know what it is. It’s just like a fun process. I had a lot of fun when I was actually choosing my brand’s name for the Legal Website Warrior. And then for the podcast also, just like, you know, when it clicks, it clicks. I’m like, Yep, that’s it. And it was like, so simple. And yeah, as I told you before we went live like my podcast is one of my favorite places to spend time and one of my favorite things to actually come out of COVID. And so my goal with Guts, Grit and Great Business®, was to bring conversations to the kinds of entrepreneurs that I serve that will help them hone their mindset, especially around long term thinking, perseverance, like how to stay in the business building game, right? COVID was hitting at the time that I launched, and I thought nobody’s talking about this and nobody is talking about what a tremendous impact this could have on so many small businesses. But little bit of the backstory, but I’m super excited to have you here. For those that don’t know Tracy Holland. Tracy is a founder, investor, board member and entrepreneur who is an authority on beauty and wellness with a global track record of incubating and launching brands. Tracy has dedicated her career to creating new brands and success stories by spotlighting innovation, amplifying authentic and celebrity voices and beauty and personal care and nurturing promising talent, especially other women entrepreneurs. Tracy’s passion for female entrepreneurs inspired the founding of potential to power house, a podcast and member platform in January 2021, which brings a world class thought leaders together to inspire and empower the next generation of female entrepreneurs and to support them on their path to becoming a powerhouse. Find potential to powerhouse success secrets for women entrepreneurs on Apple podcast or Spotify. Welcome, Tracy. I love your introduction. 

Tracy Holland  03:50

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. An honor to get to talk to you today. This is also one of my favorite things to do is to have conversations with inspired women who are really forging a path and making an impact. And I think having the benefit now of 23 years as an entrepreneur, having sold the last business that I founded, just in the last six months, and being in this place of looking at other women who are working their way through their the stages of building a business. There’s not there’s actually nothing more important now that I’ve done this, and I work with other women entrepreneurs that then mindset. It is the key. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  04:41

Yes. Well, I remember having an early conversation with you around your business and I can’t remember who brought us together, right? Somehow we crossed paths Michael Neely, Michael Neely. Big shout out to Michael Neely such a fan. But I remember yes I remember you saying that like, at this stage, I really want to be working with women around mindset.

Tracy Holland  05:07

Yeah, there’s a reason for that. And I think, you know, if I hindsight, going through the iterations of being an entrepreneur, I think, for those of us who are called to be one, you know, that word has gone through times in which it’s the hot sizzle word, and everyone was like, wow, you’re an entrepreneur. I remember starting off as an entrepreneur, and my dad thinking, Oh, I failed. You know, I raised this woman who had so much potential. And he was a PhD psychologist, my mother, PhD, my father, PhD physicist, my mother, PhD psychologist, both of them had jail bees, both of them had 401, K’s. They had their management track, and all the benefits that come with having a steady, stable paycheck. Yeah. And I think in my 20s, after getting through graduate school, Columbia, where they thought for sure, I may or may not make it through, because I wasn’t the most academic, young, young kid in high school. I actually enjoyed and loved school. But what I loved even more was business. And I started off as an entrepreneur, feeling so much responsibility for being successful, what’s deemed as successful, that I went into it with this fear based mindset. That said, if I don’t make it, it’s literally like lizard brain, do or die, right? It is the reptilian approach to what I call now white knuckling it or jamming that experience of feeling so constricted, and so stressed that you’re asleep, you wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, or you get prickly skin, or your heart’s racing all the time. And I look back, and I think, oh, my gosh, I spent 20 years, like with cortisol as the the blood instead of the blood in my veins. It was like, just pure cortisol, it just, you know, adrenal grit. Yes. And when I think about now, the techniques and the approach that I use, for expansion, and coherence and bringing heart and head into coherence in the frequency, considering that we’re all energy, we’re all frequency, we actually speak to people, three to five seconds before we even open our mouth just based on our energetics. Right? When we walk into a room, someone walks in the back of your neck gets prickly. And you think, Oh, I don’t know, if I am feeling comfortable with that. Your body’s already scanned and read everything that that person has in that they’re putting out. So trust that. And, you know, the approach of trusting yourself getting into Galera and thinking about mindset, what are your thought patterns? How are you speaking to yourself? What kind of language are you using? How are you waking up and hearing what you say? All of that, to me is so much more delicious and rich, and, and nourishing to come from that place, rather than that place of lack and fear and white hotness?

Heather Pearce Campbell  08:33

That’s such a good description. And I think, you know, the white knuckling it through like, I wonder what it is about the path of entrepreneurship that makes that I think, a really common experience. Right? Yeah, I think you explained part of it, like, depends on the upbringing, right, my dad was an entrepreneur, yours both had JLB’s. But I felt the same internal pressure, right, it wasn’t an external pressure. But I felt the same internal pressure myself to like, create something and do something that you know, the way you describe it, like, it’s like a do or die, like you have to be successful, you have to do it, you know, a certain way or achieve a certain level and, and it is just so fascinating to look at that and break it down and try to figure out, you know, why that is and why it’s such a common path for entrepreneurs.

Tracy Holland  09:29

True. And I think it’s tied to a couple of things, I think that are interesting. And I don’t have a lot of data around this, but enough to say, Gosh, that feels that feels right to me. For me, being an entrepreneur had a lot to do with self expression and creativity and being able to really move at a pace that felt right for me. But ultimately when I think back to what But it actually meant, I think what it meant to me in the beginning was money. And for me money meant safety. And because I grew up in a household that wasn’t safe, I dreamt of the day that I would get to move out and have my own home and create my own safety and my own place that felt safe. So then I thought to myself, well, what do I need to do in order to do that, I need access to money. And so money became earning money in any capacity, you know, collecting cans, or babysitting, or selling hot dogs, or selling pie. I mean, I did all of these various jobs, I remember just being always thinking about, like, what can I do to earn and save my money. And I did that with this idea that somehow I was going to be able to leave earlier, and then create safety, right. So when you when you come from a place of fear, and you’re thinking that way, all of a sudden money to me, I think on some level. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs who have had that experience come from that safe place where they think, or immigrants, right, who first come to the country, and they have 1020 $30 in their pocket, they build these massive businesses, it’s kind of this sense of, I don’t, I don’t really see another choice, I really don’t see this path of just kind of getting to spend my 20s, figuring out what I want to do doing it with leisure. Because ultimately, in order to fund that, you have to go back to the wall and ask for more money. Right. And that was like the exact opposite of where I wanted to see myself. So I think it’s somewhat intrinsic. And who we are, as little people is a lot to do with where, where we end up as entrepreneurs, whether we are taking the path of Oh, my father and my grandfather started this business, I’m inheriting it. And now I’m running a company. I have lots of friends who have had that, that incredible gift. And they’re great entrepreneurs, but they just have a different vibe, right? They just have a much more measured approach with less, maybe white hotness. And so I think it just kind of depends on the person and the personality. But there’s, to me something very intrinsic in how you landed into the world, what you went through in your your youth. And then where you end up professionally as an entrepreneur. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  12:38

Yeah, no, that feels very true. And particularly the piece, I think it’s very true for many women about money representing safety. Right. And as women, I think just biologically within us, we there are differences in historically what we’ve had access to from a safety standpoint. And money becomes a really huge piece of that feeling of like no longer being on the not safe side of the equation. Right. So it’s a huge motivator. But also, you know, in many cases, I think, driven by fear.

Tracy Holland  13:20

For sure. And I think, you know, if I were to pick all of the emotions, on the emotional scale, everything that exists, the thing that I think is the most damaging to your body, to your mind, your soul, to your spirit, to your energetics, everything is that is that emotion of fear. Because it totally disconnects you from your heart and your coherence and your wisdom. And it puts you into what I call that fight or flight mode, which a lot of scientists talk about. When you’re in fight or flight, you’re not thinking rationally. You’re not taking thought and processing it rationally. You’re triggering an auto response, or whatever has been presented and kicked in. And you are prefrontal cortex completely, you know, reactionary and not thinking through things clearly. And if you’re running your business that way, and you’re making business decisions, partner decisions, you know, investor decisions, taking money, and making decisions from a place of lack and fear. You know, you kind of end up getting back exactly what you put out, unfortunately. So, even though the irony of all of it is even though you might be trying to avoid what ultimately feels unsafe, you may be recreating it just by making rational words, decisions out of fear. So how can we help other women and get to a place of ease and grace, where they at least have access to information access to wisdom, or access to a community that allows other women to tap in that are female entrepreneurs. That says, here’s a place of safety, transparency and vulnerability. And you get an opportunity to bring your needs and leads. And we are going to share with confidentiality agreements signed, sealed and delivered. Everyone in this room is here in it equal, you made them amount of money to get in. But here you get to sit amongst peers how much you made last year really doesn’t matter to us. It’s irrelevant. What matters is that you’re there to share transparently, with an open heart and mind with your community of other women on how you can help bring them more ease and grace. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  15:54

All right, let’s pause for a moment and hear from today’s sponsor. Are you an entrepreneur who is on track to make a million or more in revenue this year in your business? If so, your business is likely facing a host of legal issues that are right for support. And if you are like so many of my clients at this level, you are likely tired of taking unnecessary risks and a DIY approach to legal support in your business. You’re ready to tackle the mess of legal documents, six legal gaps that you have. You want to take care of your IP, your clients, your business, and avoid unnecessary conflict and risk in the process. If this is you, and beyond just being an entrepreneur, you are a catalyst and are committed to your mission and your impact in the world. I invite you to get in touch. You could be a fit for my catalyst club, a small business legal support program that I designed for my high level clients. Just like you, you can find out more at legalwebsite warrior.com. Just click on the Work with Me tab to learn more about the catalyst club and other ways that I support my clients, a fabulous group of world changing entrepreneurs, I might add, you’ve done the initial legwork in your business. And now you want to soar. And you know that you can only go as high and as far as your legal foundation lets you go. So get in touch today, hop over to legalwebsitewarrior.com, click on the Work with Me tab. And if you have any questions, get in touch through the Contact link on my site, I look forward to connecting it would be a joy to support you on your path. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  17:44

I love that. And I’m super excited to hear more about where you’re going in that direction. I would love to backtrack a little bit because I know you’ve had your own amazing journey through business building a previous business or businesses and selling those. And it’s been an evolution to get to where you are now. And I also heard you mention, you know running on cortisol basically in your blood for 20 years right versus the alternative. And I relate so strongly to that. I mean, I think we all have these journeys in our bodies that we ended up having to learn a lot about and unwind and figure out. Can you share with us a little bit about some of your early experience building your your other business because I know we didn’t even cover that in your introduction? 

Tracy Holland  18:34

Sure. I’m most recently sold hatch beauty, which is a business I founded 13 years ago with a co-founder. We built that business really with a vision and a lot of tenacity and hard work. And we had a lot of consulting clients at that time. We were not a product supply business, we were really an agency for hire that came in and helped brands re position re imagine their brand its guns for hire, so to speak. But we worked nights and weekends and we knew that really what retailers wanted was unique, what looked like third party brands, not private label brands, not control brands, but really looks like outside third party brands where the retailer could come into the laboratory so to speak, and co-create the brand with all of their customer data, all their VIP customer shopping information and sit with us as collaborators and partners on how to build a brand that really had all the brand tenants that you would expect from a third party brand and then we would marry that brand with an influencer or celebrity. This is pre Instagram. This is when Facebook was somewhat of a selling platform but really not really. So we use traditional red carpet celebrities, people who are on the face and names of magazines and red car But events and we would bring them in and say we didn’t really have a deep marketing budget the way most of these big companies do. So we would use the influencers, experience and notoriety to drive the awareness of the brand. And we would bring it to a retailer exclusively, which allowed us some of the financial terms that were far more beneficial, I always called it most favored nation status, like, we would really walk in as a partner. And so if the vendor could cut net 15 terms, or net 30 terms, or if they could give us the best lease and location in the store, or they could be, you know, able to support us using their own marketing vehicles, we would do that with a very famous space and then drive new brand launches. And that when we first launched hatch beauty in 2010, you know, that idea of co-creating or incubating brands, alongside retailers and celebrities was completely not and not not. And, you know, my business partner at that time came up with the name hatch beauty, it was brilliant. Name. And, you know, I think his inspiration was like an egg, you know, you had something and it comes to life. And so it really was, we spent the first maybe three to four years of that business, someone explaining who we are. And what we do, we had a couple of huge, massive successes, that got a lot of press attention, that really just drove a lot of new business. So we went in year, one from 2 million in revenue. I think in year two, we were at 10 million in revenue, your 313 and your 445. And then after that almost 70 million and above almost 90 million in revenue in our fifth or sixth year. So it was a very fast trajectory, we did not have any investors. We did this with great vendor terms, great vendor partnerships, we did it with great retailer partnerships and their willingness to do shorter pay terms. We did it with an incredibly talented group of creative and product developers and supply chain folks. And they all came in and worked, in some cases, their day job and then the night job in order to bridge us on payroll and staffing because we didn’t have enough working capital to afford really the proper team size in order to build the business the way we needed to. And, you know, as fun as some of that was as much fun and as exciting as every new win and every new deal. And you have to imagine going from, you know, 2 million up to almost 18,000,005 and a half years. Yeah, on an annualized basis. We are in buying a manufacturing facility and converting that into a manufacturing facility for our business and using our laboratory to make products and samples. You know, what we did in the span of five years, most people would do maybe 10 to 15. And without working capital, it just you’re always playing this cashflow game of how to keep everyone paid. And I think that when I say to you cortisol is was instead of, you know, that was like the foundation. I think when you are hyper vigilant about taking care of your staff, taking care of our employees, you know, making sure everyone’s compensated, gets their bonuses and all of that and then paid their vendors on time and then making sure retailers are happy. There’s so much. There’s so many balls in the air. Yes. And I’ve had an incredible run prior to that built and sold to different businesses prior to that. So I think my learning today is that that is all possible. But there is a different mindset or a different approach. I would have said no many more times than I said yes. In hindsight, because when you look at the cost benefit of saying yes. And then what the toll it took on the team or on myself or on my kids or on the people around me. I think sometimes we get confused, that like excessive growth as female entrepreneurs especially I mean, what there’s 4% of us that ever hit over 1 million in revenue per year on an annualized basis, let alone 50 million, let alone 75 million. So every time I was told like you’ve literally done And the impossible like, people don’t do this. How did you do it? What how did this take place? It just drove and fueled me more. Because I thought, Gosh, how do I take a break? Like now I put myself into this little prison.

Heather Pearce Campbell  25:14

Iit reminds me of and I’ve got kids, you know, those little puzzles with the like, I don’t know how many parts, there’s like one blank box one space, you have to move, like a bazillion little pieces around and around and around and around to finally solve that puzzle. Like, that’s the visual I have in my head about all these moving parts and constantly moving right, this one and this one and like to get them all to keep working. And then to keep working as this thing scales just on a bigger scale lately. 

Tracy Holland  25:43

Completely. And I would say it, thankfully, we hired some incredibly talented people along the way, who came into that think box with us, and which is like, try to Rubik’s cube it but when you have, you know, now and that the other thing that gets kind of funny, but not funny is when you get over this staff size of about, I would say 35 to 40 people when you exceed that number of employees, your communication, your confusion, your What are you working on today? Those things all started to really, really disintegrate. Especially once we got to 100 employees, we got to a second location, we got our manufacturing facility up and running. And that in itself was just this eco system of like, how do I unwind and rebuild? Yes, something more thoughtful and meaningful on the staff and communication and scaling the game in a way that everyone felt committed and still connected to the vision. And I got on an elevator one day just go up to our floor and I said I saw this young woman in there. I said hi. I said, Oh, where are you going? She goes, I’m going to hatch beauty. And I said, oh, oh, great. Who are you going to meeting with? And she goes, Oh, I work there? And I said, Oh, Hi, I’m Tracy Holland.

Heather Pearce Campbell  27:27

My employee.

Tracy Holland  27:29

I said, How long have you been here? And she goes about four and a half weeks. And I said what department are you in? And she goes, Oh, I’m in accounting. And I said, Oh my goodness. Well, I really appreciate you saying hello, you’re always welcome to come up. I’m on the fourth floor doors open. Peeking you anytime you can say hello. But it just dawned on me at that minute. I thought, Gosh, I thought all the balls were the air. And yet, here I have this young woman who has been with us for almost five weeks of her life dedicated to doing what she’s doing in this role. And I haven’t even met her. How can I be any more thinly stretched? I don’t understand how I can do more than what I’m doing. But I’m still not doing enough. And so I think, you know, again, all of these lessons, all of these great experiences all this richness. I think we get the opportunity to experience things so that we can dig deep and then think, Gosh, how can I help someone from having to go through this themselves?

Heather Pearce Campbell  28:44

Yeah. Well, there’s I mean, there’s a lot like so many examples in that story of, you know, hearing you say, like having to break apart systems of like how we’ve been doing things and do them in a whole new way or you know, with a different outcome. And I think that is the perpetual challenge of growing a business. What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. There’s very specific stages where you do have to break everything apart and rebuild it. Were there were there moments in time, and it sounds like plenty about that ride was fairly thrilling. And were there times where you just wanted to throw it all in and just beat.

Tracy Holland  29:25

I did yeah, yeah, I actually sold half the company to a private equity firm in 2019. And that was a great day for me because it was really time to change the business often bring in a professional financial group and think differently about scaling and growth. And I took that year. In fact, I just like doubled down for my 10th year I think nine and nine and a half year, CEO that year. And I worked you know I went and met with Ready to different retailers that year I was with my new private equity partner, I worked harder that year, believe it or not, I think than any of the years prior, which I didn’t know was possible. And I didn’t think I had it in me. And believe it or not, I started toward the close of 19. And I remember getting out of the car to run into Starbucks to grab a coffee at 7am, after just having my kids dropped off at school through an Uber. And having spent, you know, five and a half or six hours sleeping the night prior, because I was on email until maybe midnight. And I got out of the car. And I remember looking up and thinking there’s a truck heading down Pico, about 50 miles an hour. And I thought to myself, if I just stepped out five steps, people might think it’s an accident. And I remember that dark, harsh, like, fleeting moment where I thought, How do I how do I escape? Being in this cycle? I don’t see an exit. I don’t understand. I just brought in a partner who wants double digit growth. So now I’m taking this from 80 to 160. And I’m doing that how I don’t have it in me. And I literally remember thinking to myself, whoa, what was that like that was…

Heather Pearce Campbell  31:30

Gave me goosebumps even thinking about it like that?

Tracy Holland  31:33

Yeah, that’s where my thoughts in my mind and my depth of concern around how to shift out of this cycle of feeling like I didn’t know where to go next. And so I spent the month of December of 19 digging really deep around, what is it that really brings me joy, and I did have to pull back every single aspect of what what I was doing what I love about what I do and what I no longer felt like I wanted to continue to do, because I couldn’t like when you’re wishing or you’re starting to think about gosh, I and I had a female entrepreneur friend say this to me. She goes, gosh, Tracy, you know, sometimes on Sundays I daydream about like, God, I wish I could get into a small accident, nothing too serious, but like maybe four or five broken ribs, take me out for a while. So I just don’t have. And I thought to myself, really there are other women who are going through this on Sundays, when they’re about to I mean, our work to be our joy, the thing that we do when we’re building businesses, and we have employees and, and kids and of course, things come up and they get stressful. But when there starts to become this thought pattern of like now what do I do, I don’t know how to get out. And I’m stuck. And I don’t know how to share this because now I’m getting awards and accolades. Everyone is seeing me,

Heather Pearce Campbell  33:14

All these people rely on me, right, you had the pressure of like your team relying on you.

Tracy Holland  33:21

It’s a lot, a lot. And so, you know, it was a beautiful moment, though, in that all of us, I think get to our best selves when we’re at the very hardest or lowest or crunchiest radius place. Because there’s sometimes can be a moment in which, if that doesn’t happen, we don’t stop long enough to give ourselves the space to think. Right. And so I spent all of Christmas and into New Year’s getting really clear. All I did is journal and read and pray and talk to people who had a really different mindset than I did. And said, What do I do now? And everyone said, What would be your dream. And so I literally outlined my dream situation, I said, I’d love to be chairman of the board. And to be able to advise and guide but bring in a real, incredibly dynamic and fresh person to take over as CEO. I would love to start a platform for female entrepreneurs that would give them some place to come and have this conversation in a safe environment in which they knew they would be supported and at least listened to and then provided some wisdom. And I would love to travel. And I would love to work on some projects that I feel really strongly about that support female entrepreneurs where I can tell Take some of the money that I earned on the sale and invest in female entrepreneurs and help open my rolodex decks and help guide them on their on their growth journey. So that’s what I’ve done. It was literally six weeks, it was that moment in November 19 was six weeks until, you know, New Year’s, and then I started 2020. And I thought this is if I don’t start now, when do I do this? 

Heather Pearce Campbell  35:25

How challenging was it for you to give yourself that space to go through that process?

Tracy Holland  35:34

It felt uncomfortable. I think anytime we start, when we wake up, let’s say it’s a Monday morning, and we decide we’re going to live in New Life. And it’s not the life we live last week, like it’s a Monday that’s unlike any Monday, we’ve done prior, I had to be very disciplined with myself around what I was going to do to find a plan and not race to the plan. I think there was a point in which I had to mourn the realization that getting to this place what I called there was not going to warrant or yield any different results than here. And I don’t care how much money you make. I don’t care what accolades I don’t care what award I don’t care what fancy house car you buy, I had lived that last decade thinking once I get there, then I can have a vacation, then I can be happy, then I can spend time with my kids. So I had to really cry and mourn the loss of this there that didn’t exist. Anyone relate to that? Like, oh, have you ever like once I get there? And then I see worst?

Heather Pearce Campbell  36:48

I think though you are talking to us about the human experience, full stop. The truth is most of us don’t understand what will actually make us happy, right? And we learn by doing we learn by having the experience and so many of us attach are like, Well, I think I’ll be happy or I think I’ll be super fulfilled when right go read any book out there. Especially modern book on happiness, and what we really understand about it and what we don’t understand it, like you’re preaching to the choir, people think it will be when they get there when they arrive. And and we design our life in this way so that we can create what we think will make us happy. And so yeah, it’s and I think, despite even recognizing that can be really, really challenging for people to change those patterns, give themselves the space to make a different decision and try for a different outcome.

Tracy Holland  37:55

1,000% And if anyone’s listening to this right now thinking, oh my gosh, I feel trapped. I feel you know, there is there are so many interesting resources that I now am appreciative of. But the first thing I would say to you should do, and this is thankfully what happened for me. I am grateful that I came across an incredible coach who’s an executive coach, and she has the spiritual side. She really has an interesting Her name is Coach Karen K-A-R-E-N Eldad. And she had a 15 week program. I heard about her through Gwyneth Paltrow, who I think on goop or somewhere someone had mentioned, but I think she and Gwyneth had worked together. And I reached out to two coaches, I thought I’ll interview two people, I’ll see who I like better. And I spoke to Karen, between cars in New York, between meetings, you know, Fast and Furious, as always. And I talked to this woman, and I thought, if I could just tuck into her pocket and be carried around by her for the next 15 years. And that’s what I did. I invested in myself, and it was expensive. I remember thinking, Gosh, I didn’t know coaching. You know, I didn’t realize that this is expensive, like a year of grad school. But I am so grateful that I made that choice and invest in myself because what I learned in that time, and I appreciated that she took a scientific data approach. She had me test and do some testing. We also did some writing and a lot of work around beliefs. Yeah. Wow. What an incredible impact that made read every week she had me read a book. And it was literally a three month journey and realizing I came out the other side I thought I cannot believe it. didn’t know all this stuff. The last 30 something 40 years. Yeah. How is that possible that I haven’t had made time to even understand there’s a different way? Right? Yeah. Yeah. So that was it. That was the my first step. If I, if you’re listening to this, and you’re thinking, What do I do? Step one is hire a really great, very aligned coach, not someone who’s going to drive you on goals and hitting milestones like, I I’m really good at that. I don’t know about you. I don’t need another part.

Heather Pearce Campbell  40:37

Right? Well, we need to disconnect from most of us. Yes, yeah. What are your different type? Totally? What would you say to somebody that’s struggling with how to make the right decision in that regard? Like, who do you choose? Who, you know, how to find the person that is a good fit for them?

Tracy Holland  40:59

I think you know, and I’ll tell you, I would never hire someone without at least two to three referrals. I would never take money from anyone for your company, without two to three referrals from people they have invested in three to five years from the date they invest it. Those are two rules, put those in your pocket for ever and forever. Call the folks that have worked with a coach and say, I’m considering hiring this person. What do you think? What was your experience and ask them? And it needs to be more than one, it needs to be two to three, ask them what their experience was? And how long ago they had coached with them? Or what was the outcome and the impact? You can vibrationally tell when you speak to someone if they’re aligned with you or not. But the outcome is as much as you put in, you get out. So you have you have to say to yourself, this is my biggest priority. I realized I have a full time job or I have a full time business. I have two kids. I don’t know if I have time for this. You don’t have you don’t have you don’t have the privilege of not having the time. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  42:11

Right. You don’t have time to do it. Yes, I totally hear you. Yeah, it’s a life changing difference. Yeah. Well, Tracy, I’ve loved this conversation. I want to be super respectful of your time. So a quick question for folks that are listening and are thinking, oh my gosh, I need to know more about Tracy about her work about this upcoming membership that you’re about to launch where these fabulous women can come together in a really sacred place and have meaningful conversations. Where do you like for people to connect with you?

Tracy Holland  42:50

They can go to tracy_holland_mindset and that’s on Instagram. Or they can go to potentialtopowerhouse.com So potentialtopower house. And our membership that we’re launching is called Inner Fifth. And the Inner Fifth is the bridge across four hugely important pillars in every female entrepreneurs life, its health, wealth, relationships, and purpose. And those four pillars are the four pillars of everyone in in her fifth. The bridge is the Inner Fifth, that center bridge that takes you across all four. And we are really excited. I’m launching it with Danielle Canty, who is the founder of Boss Babe. And so she has a community of incredible female, up and coming entrepreneurs, I have a community of incredible powerhouse women. And together we’re creating a mastermind series, a summit and a Dine Around series, which is all part of the membership.

Heather Pearce Campbell  44:00

Oh, I love it. So if you are listening, be sure to check that out. Tracy, we will share all of your links on our show notes page. You can find those at legalwebsitewarrior.com/podcast and we’ll try to publish this in a timeframe where you know, people are hearing about it right before you launch and open the doors. So we’ll be in touch about that. Tracy what final thoughts would you like to leave our listeners with?

Tracy Holland  44:30

I think you know if I could say what a final thought would be is one of the most powerful things that has been a help for me is continuing to sit with the vision of who I’m becoming in a really clear way and then really owning that and then as I opened my eyes and I go out to do my walking meditation or my walking morning outside to get some fresh air before I start my day is really owning her and feeling her because I think when we take up space, and we own her, and we feel it, just like into the soul of who we are, it’s like inevitable that that’s who we are and who we become. And I just encourage all women to give themselves a little bit of a break, just a little bit of a break. It’s all going to be there tomorrow, we’re never going to get it done. It’s never all gonna get complete it, there’s always going to be something more to do. So give yourself a little bit of a space and a break. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  45:37

Hmm. I love that so much, Tracy. It’s such a joy to connect with you. I feel like this has been long ago. But I’m so happy to have you here. Thanks for coming and spending some time with us today. You’re a powerhouse.

Tracy Holland  45:50

I love getting to know you and working with you. And I so appreciate you taking time. This is a real passion, I can tell.

Heather Pearce Campbell  45:57

Oh, it is I absolutely love the path of entrepreneurship and like you care tremendously that women have the support to do it well, that entrepreneurs do but women in particular, and nothing brings this to the forefront more quickly and painfully. I feel like then the experience that so many women have had during COVID where they’ve had to walk away from work or limit their work and be full time with children. Again, try to balance everything that it takes to build a career or build a business and do life well. And it’s a lot there is no shortage of opportunity for us to be providing more support to women.

Tracy Holland  46:39

Yeah. 100%. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  46:41

Yeah. So I’m super grateful for you. I’m so glad to know you. And I really appreciate you coming and having a conversation here. I feel like there might be a part two at some point because I know. Yeah, I would love that. Thank you, Tracy.

GGGB Outro  46:56

Thank you for joining us today on the Guts, Grit and Great Business® podcast. We hope that we’ve added a little fuel to your tank, some coffee to your cup and pep in your step to keep you moving forward in your own great adventures. For key takeaways, links to any resources mentioned in today’s show and more, see the show notes which can be found at www.legalwebsitewarrior.com/podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and if you enjoyed today’s conversation, please give us some stars and a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast so others will find us too. Keep up the great work you are doing in the world and we’ll see you next week.