Ep 209: Holly Howard on Business Growth for Creative Entrepreneurs
Mar 19, 2024
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Holly Howard is a culture-first business consultant with a rich background as a ballet dancer, musician, and medical researcher. In this engaging conversation, she discusses how creativity and business can coalesce for growth. Holly challenges the 'starving artist' mentality, advocating for authentic promotion over selling out. She shares her journey through music therapy and medical pursuits, emphasizing the importance of personal growth in entrepreneurship. Holly also highlights the role of supportive company culture and leadership development in nurturing creative talents.
Holly Howard highlights the importance of integrating creativity with business structures to enhance both personal and professional growth for entrepreneurs.
Challenging the 'starving artist' myth, Holly showcases her success in merging creativity and financial stability through a resilient mindset.
Emphasizing company culture as the foundation for success, Holly advocates for a strong, personalized culture to support sustainable business growth.
Deep dives
The Intersection of Creativity and Business
Successful entrepreneurship can thrive at the intersection of self-evolution, business growth, and creative pursuit. Holly Howard emphasizes that business structures exist to facilitate creativity, not to stifle it. By embracing the idea of integrating creativity with business acumen, entrepreneurs can indulge more fully in their creative processes. Holly aims to help creatives realize that their business side supports their artistic endeavors, creating a more sustainable and fulfilling work life.
Challenging the Starving Artist Narrative
The cultural narrative that labels artists as 'starving' is both pervasive and damaging. Holly Howard reflects on her experiences challenging such mindsets by showcasing her success as a creative entrepreneur. She highlights how she has defied the notion of 'feast or famine' in freelancing, emphasizing that creativity and financial success can coexist. By questioning and overcoming ingrained beliefs about money and creativity, Holly encourages artists to envision a thriving future.
Navigating Personal Growth and Compassion in Business
Holly's consultancy incorporates personal growth as essential to business growth, recognizing that entrepreneurs often confront uncomfortable emotional and mental blocks. She takes a compassionate approach to consulting, allowing clients to explore their fears and insecurities in a nonjudgmental environment. This deep engagement often leads to referring clients for therapy, as the personal struggles faced are closely tied to their professional challenges. By addressing these issues, Holly fosters both healing and growth, leading to more resilient business practices.
Reimagining Marketing Without Social Media
Running a business without relying on social media is not only possible but can be liberating. Holly Howard discusses her successful departure from social media, stating it encouraged her to explore more meaningful ways of connecting with clients. She conducts a course dedicated to helping creatives market their businesses without using social platforms, focusing instead on intentionality and quality connections. This approach emphasizes thoughtful engagement over superficial metrics, allowing for a richer, more rewarding experience in business.
Cultivating a Culture-First Consultancy
A strong company culture is essential to a business's success, akin to the soil that nourishes a tree's growth. Holly’s consultancy prioritizes understanding and nurturing this culture, as it shapes behaviors, values, and business practices. She emphasizes that a beautiful business plan is ineffective without a healthy culture to support it, advocating for a focus on mindset and accountability. Holly believes that culture should be deeply personal to the business owner and play a vital role in fostering sustainable growth.
Polymath Holly Howard has lived many lives. A former professional ballet dancer, bassoonist, medical researcher and board-certified music therapist, she’s pulled from science, art, and design to create a one-of-a-kind path for herself. Now, she runs the successful culture-first business consultancy, Ask Holly How, to help creative entrepreneurs grow personally and professionally, and better understand that business and creativity are more powerful when wielded together.
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Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.