New branding, new city, new HQ, new team members– same heart!
Yesterday was Dave’s last official day at Disney after seventeen incredible years working for one of the greatest companies on the planet. The whole process of saying goodbye was so bittersweet for him– don’t tell him I told you but he genuinely spent the last week on the verge of tears. He loves his team at Disney so much and they were such incredible champions of this next chapter in our lives and it made for a tough goodbye.
The goodbye to that chapter did make it possible for us to get here, to today and this next chapter in our lives and ALL the changes that are happening. Since I know some of you are curious I thought I’d bring you in on all the details, exciting happenings and what’s next for the Hollis family and our team.
A New Name: I’m sure that new logo might have clued you in but we’re officially The Hollis Company or Hollis Co or HoCo (I’m trying to make that last one a thing) going forward. Why? Well, when I started my events business 14 years ago the word “chic” wasn’t popular or well known. Over the years it became more and more saturated in the market but by that point, it felt like we had so much brand equity in the word (the blog was/is called The Chic Site, the audience is called The Chic Tribe) we didn’t want to give it up. But with our new focus we felt like it was time for a change. Chic doesn’t necessarily make sense for the direction we’re headed… so we started brainstorming. Ultimately we wanted a name that was gender neutral and evergreen. Once we thought of Hollis Co we latched on and then Sami worked her magic with some killer branding and then we were set. I mean… look at this logo! It’s so legit I can hardly stand it!
A New Vision: I bet you didn’t know that my company motto is: Giving women the tools to change their lives. I started using it years ago back when I was only sharing viral dinner recipes or DIY chore charts because I loved the intention that our work would be helpful in the lives of our readers. Then, when we began to host live events and we saw the reaction women were having to our life-changing weekends we realized we could give women tools on a much bigger scale. The hard part is that I had established myself as a lifestyle influencer and the bulk of our business was wrapped up in pre-existing contracts for consultation work or to promote products. Over the last couple of years, I found myself doing what many entrepreneurs inadvertently do. I was neglecting my ultimate vision and goals for my company because of the financial opportunity elsewhere. When Dave and I began to talk and dream about what it would be like for him to come and work with us here we made a bold decision: we would only focus our energy on things that help our audience to change their lives. That could be big and grand like a personal growth conference, everyday encouragement like a podcast or products that we love and admire but we decided we’d no longer commit to any new business that didn’t fit in with our mission.
A New Leader: The biggest part of this transition for me both personally and professionally was the choice to “hire” Dave into the CEO role. I founded my company 14 years ago and I have been so proud of my CEO status, particularly when so few women hold that title in the media industry. It took a massive (and I do mean massive) amount of prayer and consideration to make this choice rather than go with a Co-CEO title. My reasons for the decision where 1. It is absolutely untenable for me to keep going at the rate I’m going. For 14 years I’ve been the one running the business and I also am the business. Does that make sense? I am the one running meetings and overseeing P&L’s and approving hires and approving the lease on office space. Simultaneously I am the one casting the vision, writing the posts, speaking on stages, writing the books, posing in the photos etc. I’m pretty freaking proud of the fact that I’ve been able to operate at such high capacity for so long but I recognize that if I want to scale the business I cannot continue to do both simultaneously. I knew this was true but I also REALLY struggled with the idea of giving up what I had worked so hard to achieve. Then my sweet friend Christy told me to make a list of everything I loved to do at my job and it turns out, NONE of the things on my list were CEO related. Ha! What a miracle! I had no idea. I care deeply about the content, the visuals, the customers, the message and the experience we create for our tribe. I do not care at all about finances, hiring, budgets, processes, procedures and a million other details. Turns out, the only thing standing between me and my dream job was my own pride. My new title? Chief Creative Officer! Basically, I’m in charge of everything fun and beautiful and I only have to pay attention to the functional components of the business at a top line level instead of day-to-day operations. Huzzah! 2. My husband just left a job at Walt Disney Studios after 17 years. He was the president of worldwide distribution. If he was going anywhere else on the planet he wouldn’t even consider a job that wasn’t CEO and frankly, I wanted to be respectful of what he has earned in his career. 3. I am really blessed to have several friends who work with their partner and every single one that I spoke to told me that the biggest issues they’d faced in their business partnership always boiled down to pride. Ultimately I want to grow this business into what I know it can be and doing what’s best for the business means getting out of my own way. I’m going to do what I do best (dream up cool things) and Dave is going to do what he does best (lead a team to scale a company) and it’s going to be incredible. I’m sure we’ll be socially conscious billionaires by next Wednesday at the latest.
Want to follow along on all our fun as we move The Hollis Company to Austin? Be sure to follow on the company Instagram HERE.
Want to know why we chose Texas as our new home state? Watch the video below.
