Welcome to Pitch, Please!, The Christy Maz Network series where you can promote your product here and reach women now!
We wanted a space for women to be able to promote their latest products/projects and let other women be the first to know about things that are new and exciting! So Pitch, Please was born.
CMN sat down HILARY HARTLING who is here to promote, Hilary Hartling Headquarters- her company where she offers brand strategy for the modern entrepreneur. You can find her at her website hilaryhartling.com.
Hi Hilary, welcome to Pitch, Please! For those who don’t know you, tell us what is your company’s name and what does it do? HILARY HARTLING HEADQUARTERS offers Brand Strategy for the Modern Entrepreneur.
What is your background/ How did you get into this industry? As a Brand & Messaging Strategist for my business, I draw from 15+ years experience leading visionary marketing and synergy initiatives for films from global entertainment brands: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Touchstone. For the past 8 years, I’ve leveraged my Fortune 50 experience to help business owners, entrepreneurs and leaders create captivating brands that resonate through my brand strategy development, consultancy, and online education platform.
How and why did you start this company? After leaving my dream job at Disney, I was looking for my next big dream. My business was born as a way to create the lifestyle I desired, to be my own boss, set my own course and build my own brand with the vision, purpose and messages I feel called to share. The deeper why behind my company is to inspire my audience to pursue the work and life that lights them up –I currently help them do this by bringing clarity to the brands they’re building, but am evolving and expanding soon to include more personal branding and inspiration to re-brand your life.
What moment made you realize this idea was going to be a success? I really began seeing momentum in my business as a result of in person networking with other female entrepreneurs starting out or looking to grow their businesses. I’ve met so many amazing business owners – I was literally blown away by the bootstrapping, exciting, entrepreneurial world I discovered after leaving my corporate job where I had no idea this many people (and women!) were pursuing their passions and starting their dream businesses. That LIKE-KNOW-TRUST factor is a big reason for my success and when you get in person with people right off the bat, they get to know you and what you’re capable of very quickly. It became obvious this would be a viable business when I saw the clarity, excitement and confidence that came out of the brand strategy & messaging work i did with entrepreneurs and how they continued to refer others to me.
What were your fears and how did you overcome them? I think the fear is always – will my referrals and leads dry up? Am I doing enough? Can I keep up with the quick-changing world of digital marketing to stand out? And will I make enough money to sustain my lifestyle? I don’t know that I’ve completely overcome all of these fears. There are hills and valleys in having your own business, but what’s helped me greatly is having entrepreneur peers and friends, sharing best practices, referral partners, continuous networking, and trusting and believing that I’m meant to do what i’m really great at.
Was the process hard or easy? Hate to say it, but hard. Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart!. I came from a corporate job where I had teams I could rely on to execute and lean on for their specific skills and expertise. I threw myself into a space where I had to build my personal brand (harder than building a brand that’s not about you!), had to learn all the social media platforms and about SEO, building a great website, building offers, and really just wearing all the hats in the business from admin to CEO and everything in between. I love how much I’ve learned, but I’m still learning and still growing in order to keep up with the marketing that works best to reach my audience.
What is the best thing about what you do? Working with the people who are truly inspired and lit up by the work they’re doing and the purpose driven brands they’re creating. That, and being able to see the connections I make from my community and programs that inspire friendships and collaborations. It’s all about the people!
What impact do you hope your company will have on people’s lives? That they move towards their bigger purpose and meaningful pursuit of their choice with clarity and confidence.
What is the one thing that people always compliment you on in your business? How I can take all these random thoughts or a mess of convoluted ideas and hone it into clear and concise strategy and messaging. My clients also often say I have “messaging MAGIC!”
For someone looking to do what you do – any advice? You’ve got to love marketing and strategy, be great with words, and combine that with creativity. I’d say if you’ve never done brand strategy before, finding a mentor to teach you how to do it and do it well, would be a great place to start. It’s remembering that a brand is built for an audience so you need to understand that audience as well as see the scope of the industry and find the gap where that brand can truly stand out.
Where can people find you or work with you? On my website at hilaryhartling.com Or via @hilaryhartling on Instagram or LinkedIn.
