Transcript

#476: The FASTEST Way To Build Your EMPIRE with Tracy Holland, Founder, Investor, Board Member...

From Heather Monahan · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 56 min · 9,533 words · 54 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "#476: The FASTEST Way To Build Your EMPIRE with Tracy Holland, Founder, Investor, Board Member...", an episode of Heather Monahan published November 5, 2024 (56 min, about 9,533 words). It mentions 21 people, works and ideas, including Inner Fifth, Tracy Holland, Hatch Beauty, Potential to Powerhouse, Goodwill Brands.

What this episode is about

Tracy Holland, a seasoned entrepreneur and authority in beauty and wellness, shares her journey of building successful brands and empowering female entrepreneurs. She discusses her initiatives aimed at supporting women's leadership, her significant achievements in the industry, and insights into launching and growing consumer-focused businesses.

Key takeaways

  • Entrepreneurial DNA: Tracy opted for profit over waiting for Santa—talk about a holiday hustle!
  • Family Ties: Nuclear physicist dad and psychologist mom created a business-savvy CEO—a cerebral cocktail.
  • Boarding School Reform: Trading reform school for reforms in personal care—now that's pivoting with purpose.
  • Money Talks: Why wait for Santa? Tracy’s hustle thrived on DIY capitalism—a second-grader with foresight!
  • Sneaky Tips: Upsell with a smile—Steak’s better with mushrooms, and life’s richer when tips overflow!

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Tracy Holland, Committee of 200, Goodwill Brands, Hatch Beauty
  2. – 15:00: Netsuite, Prime Minister of China, University of Beijing
  3. – 25:00: Shopify, Dr. John Gray
  4. – 45:00: Inner Fifth
  5. – 50:00: Inner Fifth, Hatch Beauty
  6. – 55:00: Inner Fifth, Tracy Holland
  7. – 55:57: Stop looking for the how and find the who

Notable quotes from "#476: The FASTEST Way To Build Your EMPIRE with Tracy Holland, Founder, Investor, Board Member..."

  • Potential to Powerhouse podcast focused on the success secrets of women leaders and inner Fifth and invite only membership for elite female entrepreneurs Tracy Holland is also…
    about Inner Fifth · at
  • Of the Year Ernst to young entrepreneur of the Year 2017 holy cow and election to the committee of 200 an organization of the most successful Women Business Leaders globally…
    about Committee of 200 · at
  • 25 1 37,000 that's the number of businesses which have upgraded to netsuite by Oracle netsuite is the number one Cloud Financial system streamlining accounting financial management inventory HR and more all for you 25 net Suite turns.
    about Netsuite · at
  • To learn Spanish I'd Never Been to Spain and I had originally gotten a fellowship to go study at the University of Beijing in China and then I realized about a week before my…
    about University of Beijing · at
  • Do so about a week before I was supposed to leave Hillary Clinton pissed off the Prime Minister of China somehow if you remember she was over there like stirring up women's…
    about Prime Minister of China · at
  • Entrepreneur of the year that's the sound of another sale on Shopify and the moment another business dream becomes a reality your reality Shopify is a Commerce platform…
    about Shopify · at
  • An online business but you know Dr John I'm blanking on his name he's so brilliant gray thank you Dr John Gray Men Are from Mars women from Venus he's brilliant and you know…
    about Dr. John Gray · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Tracy Holland — Person · 3 mentions · first at
    Going to be so hyped for our show today so buckle up and get ready today we've got Tracy Holland she's a Founder an investor a board member an entrepreneur who is an authority…
  • Dr. John Gray — Person · 1 mention · first at

Books & papers

Companies & orgs

  • Inner Fifth — Company · 6 mentions · first at
  • Hatch Beauty — Company · 2 mentions · first at
    Investments into consumer Focus founder Le Brands formerly Tracy was co-founder and CEO of hatch Beauty Brands which she led for over a decade before selling the company she…
  • Goodwill Brands — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Entrepreneurs Tracy Holland is also a founder and executive chairman of Goodwill Brands a multi-brand multicategory investor an operating model making both minority and…
  • Hatch Beauty Brands — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Investments into consumer Focus founder Le Brands formerly Tracy was co-founder and CEO of hatch Beauty Brands which she led for over a decade before selling the company she…
  • Committee of 200 — Company · 1 mention · first at
  • University of Beijing — Company · 1 mention · first at
  • Ernst & Young — Company · 1 mention
  • Instagram (IG) — Company · 1 mention
  • U.S. Department of Justice — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

  • Potential to Powerhouse — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Entrepreneurs and Powerhouse women leaders inspired two initiatives potential to Powerhouse podcast focused on the success secrets of women leaders and inner Fifth and invite…

Concepts & topics

Places & events

Sponsors

Full transcript with timestamps

hi and welcome back I'm so glad you're back with me this week okay you are going to be so hyped for our show today so buckle up and get ready today we've got Tracy Holland she's a Founder an investor a board member an entrepreneur who is an authority on beauty and wellness with a global 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 in Beauty and personal care and nurturing promising Talent especially other female entrepreneurs my girl is a girl that loves women I love this most recently Tracy's passion around women entrepreneurs and Powerhouse women leaders inspired two initiatives potential to Powerhouse podcast focused on the success secrets of women leaders and inner Fifth and invite only membership for elite female entrepreneurs Tracy Holland is also a

founder and executive chairman of Goodwill Brands a multi-brand multicategory investor an operating model making both minority and majority investments into consumer Focus founder Le Brands formerly Tracy was co-founder and CEO of hatch Beauty Brands which she led for over a decade before selling the company she built hatch Beauty Brands from a startup to a recognized Global leader in Beauty and wellness Brands generating more than 750 million in cumulative Revenue before selling her position her Awards and honors include but not limited to 2019 fashion and Beauty award for beauty service provider of the Year Ernst to young entrepreneur of the Year 2017 holy cow and election to the committee of 200 an organization of the most successful Women Business Leaders globally holy resum Tracy thank you so much for being here yo yo thank you yo yo my people I'm so hyped you're here okay so Tracy take us back because

I happen to know your story and I can't wait for everyone else to hear it let's go back to the beginning a little because I do feel like your childhood and how you grew up has an impact on who you are today and it it's just it's such an incredible story if you could take us back a little bit sure sure yes so my dad is a nucular physicist and my mom's a psychologist both with phds you know how God works he delivers packages in small sizes you never know what you're going to get so they get me oldest daughter firstborn and I was an entrepreneur from day one much to their Chagrin so I think I started every business known to man from of course the lemonade stand collecting cans I made and sold pies to my neighbors I did everything I could possibly think of to generate cash because as a kid I thought this life that they've created is not the life for me I saw them get up at 6:30 in the the morning get in the car drive to work be

gone for 10 to 12 Hours come home be aggravated irritated unhappy at each other's throat and I thought to myself why would anyone want to sign up to go to work like I want to pause you for a second I very rarely do this because I'm super curious do you think then that just genetically you're born an entrepreneur and is that the way it has to be for everyone like H because I didn't I didn't think like that I think so I think for me understanding that money bought at that time dolls and toys and things that I wanted why would you wait till Christmas when you could go buy it for yourself okay like second grade third grade when my parents would say oh put that on your Christmas list I'm like Christmas it's March what are you talking about I'm not going to even want it at Christmas like how do accelerate the plan and so literally remembering how money bought products money bought things you wanted remembering how

frustrated I was by being told Santa will bring it like who's this dude Santa why do we have to wait why why and then what can I do to earn money more quickly and as a kid I used to love this idea of any way I could earn money whether it's watching my sister or putting some show on for the neighborhood where I could charge tickets so I do I think there is something to be said for being born with this idea of not being confined by what you want to be somehow tied to time I mean listen I think what a gift I'm just going to say what a gift it took me you know a lot of people I think are more accepting of the life that they have in front of them and thinking that's just what life is I think that's kind of you know how I when I grew up I'm like this is just it right until I started getting a little bit older and then I'm like well I'm gonna get a PaPeRo I'm gonna bus tables I'm gonna find ways to make extra cash but

the level at which your thinking and questioning came into play I think is so incredibly powerful take us through what that looked like as you started getting into jobs and business yeah I mean I like you I waited tables I started off as a Hostess and I realized that hosting never earned as much as waiting table so I was like how do I get into the waiting table game I knew there had to be like a certain age when you could serve alcohol I mean there was so much complications to all that and so being focused on I think the service industry is one of the best ways to train yourself for excellence because I realize quickly you know if I could do add-ons what you called add-ons so someone order a flam minan and you're like why don't you add on some delicious mushrooms or some Bernay sauce or let's get you a Caesar how about a second glass of wine like that ticket gets higher and your tip gets bigger and they

love you more right so all of that started to make sense to me and I realized when I went to college which I was not planning to do but my parents are very smart because at 18 when I finished board boarding school which was actually reform school so they did send me to you know basically like a child lock down for 1516 so that they could force me to get 4.0 or above because all I wanted to do at the time was work and I remember my saying to my parents you know I don't think I'm G to rush into college why do that let's I'm going to go to work and spend a year working and they were really really smart they cut me off financially and they said okay if you're going to go to work go to work but you're not going to get a penny from us and I remember what it felt like to sweat getting the enough tips getting enough cash that week in order to make rent in order to pay for a car and payments and all those things and I

realized whatever I do transactionally in business I have to have a much bigger ticket than someone's F minat I gotta think like way bigger what can that way bigger thing look like and that's really why I went to college was because I needed to give myself the space in the bandwidth to think about what was the bigger thing and my parents said we will pay for your college and we'll PVE your lifestyle if you decide to go to college so there is something to be said about that carrot and the stick you know as you think about life how do you sacrifice today for something greater that want tomorrow I really do think about that especially as it relates to where I spend my time and what I focus on because that is the greatest gift that we all have is time and if you're not happy in your current circumstances and the thing that you want is not right in front of you with a path I always really think about how do I spend my

time and how could I utilize it differently to get the biggest and best return on investment so you have just been such a big thinker from such a young age even very much to the uh lack of happiness or discouragement from your parents who were trying to push you in a very different direction you just always felt compelled to and I like how you say like you just knew you would always be a bad employee totally holy smokes are you kidding I remember begging to keep my job one summer because they said you know what Tracy you are not following the rules you're taking way too many tables you're trying to do too much you know this is your section and I just remember being like on that docket to be terminated because I was in a high stakes role I was working for a really popular big restaurant in Sao and I remember thinking to myself wow this is how easily it can happen you know you have to be able to create a

business for yourself that can cash flow while you sleep so what is the business that allows me to make money while I sleep while I go on vacation while I do fun things with my family and how do I set myself up to be able to do that without having to be operating daily in my business but rather on my business and that was always a biggie and again if you had parents that work the grind 60 70 hours a week and still found themselves treading water every year or sweating about tax time or sweating about making a home mortgage payment or tax payment on the house you realize like there's nothing worth that amount of stress if you can start to set yourself up to have residual income so that while you sleep you're earning money and that was always that was always an a motivator for me so how did you do that initially your business gets to a certain size and the cracks start to emerge things you used to do in a day

are taking a week you have too many manual processes you don't have one source of truth if this is you you should know these three numbers 37,000 25 1 37,000 that's the number of businesses which have upgraded to netsuite by Oracle netsuite is the number one Cloud Financial system streamlining accounting financial management inventory HR and more all for for you 25 net Suite turns 25 this year that's 25 years of helping businesses do more with less close their books in days not weeks and drive down costs 25 years one because your business is one of a kind so you get a customized solution for all of your kpis key performance indicators in one efficiency system with one source of Truth manage risk get reliable forecasts and improve your margins there is so much power in having all the information that you need in one place imagine how much more efficient you can be how much faster you can move and to do it with so much

confidence it's unprecedented and the unprecedented offer that neted is providing you today is going to make this possible right now download Net's popular kpi check designed to give you consistently excellent performance absolutely free at nets.com Monahan that's netsuite.com Monahan to get your kpi checklist now netsuite.com Monahan you know I was kind of Lucky in that when I went to go to when I was in college and went to go to graduate school I decided to take a year off after college to go study in seevilla and I wanted to learn full l o I wanted to learn Spanish I'd Never Been to Spain and I had originally gotten a fellowship to go study at the University of Beijing in China and then I realized about a week before my Visa was approved that it was what they called a single entry Visa which means you get into China but you don't get to come out and it was a oneyear stint and everyone and their mother was

like oh my gosh you love Mexican food you love gu gule he loved chips he loved salsa like what are you going to do for each a year and I thought I don't think I can do this like I love my workouts I love my guac and chips I love my fresh delicious Napa wine like what am i g to do so about a week before I was supposed to leave Hillary Clinton pissed off the the Prime Minister of China somehow if you remember she was over there like stirring up women's rights or something and so my Visa was delayed two weeks so my father had this fabulous travel agent who was considered a family friend and I called her on a whim and I was like hey what does it cost to take me to Madrid like a one-way ticket and she was like where are you going in Madrid why are you doing that and I said I think I'm gonna move there I just wondered like what's possible she goes well I could get you a ticket on Friday if you want but I can't

make it one way you have to have round trips so could round trip you like 364 days from today and that's one year less than one year and one by one day and I said book it so that literally was a huge Catalyst for me my parents were so upset and of course questioned this just kicked off another series of like Tracy's not thinking clearly Tracy's out of control Tracy has uh she's you you know not making sound choices whatever that may be but I do think those kinds of pivot moments in our life where we just follow our gut instinct and it was really down to guacin ships thank God because I got to Spain and you guys I had the best time it was like my best life ever I got a couple dog walking did gigs I was teaching some people English I went to the university I learned flamco and it was on that oneye Hiatus in which my parents really didn't speak to me between AG of 24 25 that I decided to come back and I met a woman who was a

Department of Justice friends a chemist and she had invented scented nail polish so she had invented This brilliant Concept in her brain which as she painted my nails they would smell like rose or lavender or chocolate or whatever and I met her with her and I and she was kind of like playing with it as if it was a a play concept and I said you know there's a real business here like this is really unique if we took this to retail can you imagine what people would say and that was really the first ever business that I built and I built that with her and our co-packer manufacturer who underwrote and financed all of our inventory and financed our business growth but that was really the Catalyst to starting in business and the reason I ended up in the beauty business was only because I got so many connections and got to know so much about the industry by coming out with the first scented nail polish ever known

to man and that was like a GameChanger in terms of getting me in front of some really interesting folks and it was not my invention it definitely was she's brilliant inventor behind it uh but I'm really good at figuring out where there's something unique and then commercializing and monetizing it that's really I would say that's my gift I other couple other quick observations is don't just take the path that is frequently taken because you would be a totally different person today if you had done that you listen to your own intuition you had tremendous confidence and courage to move forward even when those closest to you told you not to you still chose to go within listen to yourself and then you chose to look at what talents and skills you had that could be additive to what somebody else was offering so that you could come together to actually have a tremendous company talk us through a little bit I

love what you've shared with me around how you didn't have lines of credit you didn't have money to get merchandise and how you pulled all of these things off to get the company as big as you ultimately got your beauty companies to be yeah I think we figure out alternative financing and I have done it all like from The Lone shark who literally gives you money at a user interest rate and who collateralize your entire life even though you don't really have collateral including like your car and everything I've done Lan shark loan I've done mezzanine I've done lines of credit I did really the best and most viable opportunity for anyone to start a business is to partner with your supplier who has likely Deep Pockets because they've been building and supplying those programs for a long long time and you know they took a risk on me because I'm a great salesperson and I think they saw that I was a Visionary

and I had very very strong relationships and I was the type of person to under promise and overd deliver and I think that's a very important personal skill I'm the opposite of walking in and saying hey we're going to build this to be 50 million like I want to know exactly how we're going to get there and the exact steps that it takes in order to break down the fin anals to be able to understand the model and to understand the profitability and where there are hiccups and that is literally how I built the confidence with my main Supply Partners is that I saw these smaller suppliers who were either Father and Son owned or familyowned or original founder owned who had been in the business for let's say 15 20 25 years and I would go meet with them and I would show them my business plan and I would say here's how I see this working and how I see us working together and if you will provide me established credit

so that I don't have to pay your bill in 30 days I can pay it in 90 days then you have built yourself enough Runway to be able to turn the cash at a place that actually makes the business viable because the fact is is when a business runs out of cash everything stops like those chair that chair game I used to hate that game you know when the Music Stops and everyone's like their butts are trying to find the seat that's what happens that's what happened in 2008 when all the banks chairs yeah remember when the banks in 2008 and you drive down the street and you see lines of people around the corner and you're like what the f is happening that is the feeling of when your company runs out of cash so I think one thing that I would suggest to all founders is keep your day job earn enough income doing your day job to be able to pay your bills so that you can afford to run your business and not need

an income in order to sustain yourself because that is the Tipping Point that I see a lot of women Founders lose their business because they took their entire life savings dumped it into the company then they're working there full-time and they're doing everything they can to keep the business going and then they don't have enough income to their lifestyle and all of a sudden musical chairs Music Stops oh gosh that's a stressful um like I could feel it just explaining that with the musical chairs it does does not sound fun okay so not all parts of your business have been this incredible journey as you're explaining right like in finding being creative and building relationship and credibility and overd delivering and under promising all these things take hard work people hate hearing that but that is true right like it takes hustle it takes hard work how did you end up to winning the entrepreneur of the

year that's the sound of another sale on Shopify and the moment another business dream becomes a reality your reality Shopify is a Commerce platform revolutionizing millions of businesses worldwide including mine whether you're selling your Mastermind your courses whether you're selling your books Shopify simplify selling online and in person so you can focus on successfully growing your business and doing what you're great at creating whether it's fashion Home and Garden heal Beauty Shopify covers it all Shopify covers every sales channel from an in-person POS system to an all-in-one e-commerce platform it even lets you sell across social media marketplaces like Tik Tok Facebook and Instagram packed with industry-leading tools ready to ignite your growth Shopify gives you complete control over your business and your brand without having to learn any new skills into design or codee and let me

tell you I have no idea about design or code so thank you Shopify for making it so easy and thanks to 247 help and an extensive Business course Library Shopify is there to support your success every step of the way what's incredible to me about Shopify is how no matter how big you want to grow no matter how big you currently are or how small you are Shopify is there to empower you with the confidence and control to revolutionize your business take your business to that next level constantly adding on new products services and ideas now it's your turn to get serious about selling and try Shopify now this is possibility powered by Shopify sign up for a $1 per month trial at shopify.com Monahan all lowercase m o n a an all lowercase sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com Monahan all lowercase go to shopify.com manahan to take your business to the next level today join me shopify.com

Monahan you can thank me later that's a so I want people to hear this not every woman is cut out to be an entrepreneur and I really really think there's something beautiful about having a full-time steady job working for someone and doing things that you enjoy on the side whether that's earning you an income or not I think that women in particular have a very challenging period between 30 and 40 of trying to figure out how to find the love of their life fall in love get married and then have a child or multiple children and build a business I just don't know if now I would be giving myself the same advice to say this is easy all you have to do is focus on the good stuff like there there are real moment M Heather just like you said where I would think to myself gosh I wish I had taken more time to date so I could have found a really wealthy guy and like called it a day not that I would not have done

something fabulous with my you know whether it's a boutique or some kind of an online business but you know Dr John I'm blanking on his name he's so brilliant gray thank you Dr John Gray Men Are from Mars women from Venus he's brilliant and you know what he says he says when women go into typ a mode when they go into like hard drive their testosterone goes way up their estrogen goes down and when they're dating men that they meet they're when they're dating and their testosterone's up and they're in that type a mode and they're going and going men testosterone drops and their estrogen goes up and so when you think about the reality of meeting a partner finding love getting married having children having a great relationship being sexy still wanting to see him naked and building a company like that's a thing I don't know many people who do that in all areas really well but I would say that the grace that

I was afforded in being able to go from Z to 100 million in revenue on a self-funded business without a venture investment without private Equity without a big debt or loan on the company was drum roll being authentic truly and the reason I say that is because I was four weeks after giving birth to my daughter when Costco was gracious enough to give me my first opportunity to present and of course I said of course I'll be there because like yes so I drive up with my four-week old daughter and this new nanny who just started with us to go present to the vice president and the buying team at Costco and of course I'm in the lobby in the corner where they make the coffee with the little coffee pods and I have her breastfeeding hidden under a blanket and I'm thinking I'll just feed her as much as I can and then hand her to the nanny and then go in and present to Costco and then I will come out and

everything will be fine I will have won this business and I will be going like yes okay so I hand her the baby I go into the presentation room this is my first Like official VP with buying team meeting I start my presentation I open the deck I talk to them about the Innovation and opportunity and how we're going to come in and be this creative partner and co-create brands with them what that could look like and down the hall I hear what sounds like a pterodactyl squawk and like my bones chill and I said that sounds like the baby and then I thought I'm Gonna Keep Going everything's fine I'm gonna keep going I'm gonna keep going five more minutes I hear the squawk get closer and I'm thinking okay this is the wheels are flying off the bus but don't know what the squawk is right so I have their attention they're buying it they're buying what I'm selling so we're in this thing and all of a sudden I couldn't

like my milk was coming in and I could tell I had to make a choice I was in that pivot moment Choice M moment inflection point that some of us get in where we just don't have a choice and I stopped and I said hey friends I just had a baby four weeks ago I probably didn't mention that just so happens she's out in the hall I think I just heard her I'm just going to stick my head out just check is that okay I'll be right back everyone's mouth drops what are you talking about you just had a baby well I just had a baby four weeks ago she just nursed she should be fine but I'm thinking I might need to check hold on I scoot out open the door I see the nanny holding the baby looking at me with like these eyes and the baby's little face like red upset crying and you know they get to that four or five week point and they start that growth spurt and they just can't stop eating I just was like oh my

gosh this is crazy this is happening in this very moment I grab the baby I flip my shirt up I flip my little Clipper bra down I put her on I put a a blanket over my shoulder I flip around go back into the room she's under the blanket I'm she's happy she's eating I have their eyes looking in my eyes and I said okay well if it's okay with you we'll just keep going because I knew I had a truncated period of time in which I had them in the and you could hear a pin drop in that room and honestly Heather I look back on it now and I think how did I do that but the reality is is I didn't have a choice you know I could have said to them I'm going to step out feed her they would have dispersed the meeting would have been over it would have been this you know what sales are like it's that's weird so I keep going and at the end of the meeting maybe another 10 minutes go by and the nicest man he's the VP at the time and I

can't remember his name his name is Rick and I'll think of his last name in a minute anyway he said I've been working here for 32 years and in my entire career I have never had a vendor bring a newborn baby to the office nor have I ever had anyone nurse in a presentation and I was like oh I know not ideal but memorable and he but memorable and he said to me I don't know how we're going to do business together but I really look forward to working with you and in truly Heather that meant so much to me in that moment because you have to imagine this is before women even had nursing rooms right my daughter is 15 and a half right now so if you think about this this is 14 15 15 years ago today that was what 2013 is that a sound right I mean my math is off right now 2012 so all I can say 20 20 no it's 209 0909 she was born in ' 09 what am I talking about so 2009 you guys like if you start to think about what that

meant for me as a woman as a business owner as a small business owner as someone who really wanted to build a incredible business I had such a opportunity to take that and cancel the meeting I could have walked out in the middle of that situation and not finished the meeting I chose to stay in I I don't know what the outcome would have been in any of those scenarios but in hindsight I think they realized that I'm the kind of person who will show up we do what I say I will follow through I have the integrity and the confidence to be in present and be fully engaged and ready to go and that that meant like over I think in the the eight or nine years we did business with them we might have done 250 million in Revenue maybe 300 million in Revenue with Costco but what I will tell you it wasn't just the revenue with Costco it me the seal of approval of having a business relationship with Costco right

which then brings Target and it brings Walmart and Sam's Club and all of the CVS and Walgreens and all of those other accounts so you know I would say that that's that is truly how we catapulted ourselves from a smaller steady steadily growing company to Super sizing our business and who doesn't want that moment however it does sound a little touch and go um through that actual presentation I'm super proud of you that you didn't pull that remember that guy on CNN when he was like kicking his kid out of the room opposite of what you did so Kos to you for being yourself for keeping it real and like you said being authentic and just like hey this is who I am and um if it gives you any type of insight into me hopefully that you'll want to do business with me and they did so congratulations all right so how do you go from there to what I actually know was happening when you were winning the entrepreneur of the Year

award yeah I think that that was a a low moment you know that's the interesting thing I think entrepreneurs don't win Awards often it's a pretty thankless um role or career path I would say it's a lot more grief and heartache than there are shining star moments of award I remember accepting that award being so so grateful for being acknowledged but also receiving that award I was receiving it in such a depleted place you know I didn't have time for myself I was waking up in cold sweat the business had grown so large we had 125 employees we had a manufacturing facility we had an agency where we're doing creative and strategy we had our products business that we're co-creating and building products prod with celebrity talent and Retail and having three kids I remember getting that award and thinking I'm doing everything like half ass I'm doing the parenting thing really poorly I'm doing the life and personal balance

thing poorly and I'm doing the business thing poorly and I I do remember feeling in 2017 afraid to tell anyone and really being able to share How Deeply dark of a time that was for me not seeing how I can get out of that situation minus like a car accident that would put me in the hospital for two weeks with like a couple broken ribs like that's a a decent excuse for how how you can shift out of work or you know I would imagine selling the company or figuring out how to Pivot my life into something that was a little more manageable and it was from that dark time that I realized there needs to be a place that we create for women by women for high- performing female entrepreneurs that gives women a place to come and have conversation and to learn tools to take back their time win their freedom learn how to sit back and be an operating owner rather than an operating employee of your business because as an as an

owner you should be sitting in the owner's box and there's really only four things you should be thinking about sitting in the owner's box but as an operator you're wearing so many hats and you're running so fast I don't know if it's possible to really like I said in the beginning of our conversation to manage the very real aspects of what it means to be a new mom and have a household in a life and eventually it all catches up it does unless you pull a trigger and take action to intervene on your own behalf which to me is kind of seems like why you invented inner fif or created inner fif yes it was absolutely and you know I'll tell you I've I've joined every women's group men's group EO vistage YPO I I've joined all these groups in hopes of being able to really come transparent ly to share and what I've realized is when those groups and I love each of them for what they have brought me there's I've been so

grateful but it's different when you have a group of women who are entrepreneurs who literally eat what they kill who have a mentality of understanding that there is no free check there's no easy ride like it's all on their shoulders and bringing that community of high- Performing female entrepreneurs together to Resource one another's Network in order to bring more grace and ease to the process is mindblowing as a resource for what I wish I had had back in 2010 or 2011 or 2012 or 13 or 14 right because the whole thing goes back to I think what you were saying before when you're alone problems seem insurmountable when you're in community with like-minded people who've actually gone through and experienced some of the things that you're going through not only can they advise you and tell you what's worked and what hasn't worked but it's also someone who understands the challenge you're facing even if it's just to

listen it it it allows you not to feel alone totally and don't you sometimes need someone to say to you dude this is a moment in time do not get so down stop saying these things to yourself like go get yourself by a pool and get your favorite book and go chillax for an afternoon everything will be there in the morning because sometimes we need to hear it feels do or die right we're we're supporting our kids we're supporting ourselves we have all of our employees we have payroll we have all the expectations and life can happen and think about what it means to take time for yourself and figure out ways in which you can recalibrate there's nothing more important to me than figuring out how to continue to bring other women entrepreneurs into this fold so that they can receive the same guidance support and frankly tools for how to win your time back and be more disciplined with yourself about when you're at work

what do you work on that brings an Roi versus what do you delegate and how do you find your Who network to hire who instead of trying to how all the way to the end to the end or to the Finish Line I love how you share that and it's something that I whenever I'm talking to anybody and having a business conversation I credit you with that whole idea of it's not the house stop spending so much time time trying to figure out the how which can take years to figure out spend your time networking and finding The Who and that solves a problem and it things move so much faster when you do that to your point in my experience just in the last few months being a part of or 5th and getting exposed to women who have sold their companies for hundreds of millions of dollars suddenly it raises the level of what is possible not only for others but for yourself for your own company for how big you want to go and for what

you even see as possible and then you're able to have the conversation how were you able to do that and still have a family how are you able to do that and take care of your health and it's been incredibly eye openening to see the diverse audience where I remember at one of our intensives recently one of our members kind of lectured everybody on no you need to get a driver you need to get a full-time Nanny you need to do this because the happier you are the healthy you are the more you're sleeping and enjoying your spouse the better mother you're going to be the better business person you're going to be and she's like and I am living it and I am giving everyone here permission to do it and everyone went crazy and it was such a cool experience just to see any in any one of these moments one person can go from being the mentor to being the mentee and everyone has something to share and learn from it's

we have so much to learn from each other and I having you part of this like your fire and your vision and how you touch people through how you communicate it is such a gift because each of us like exactly to your point if you're an entrepreneur you have a growth mindset your glasses already have full you didn't get to be an entrepreneur because you thought like the world's falling apart and nothing's ever going to work for you so by virtue of that you're already kind of in that qualifying place of what's possible and as you know our frequency or our energy matches the people we're in the room with right so if you're in the room with a bunch of people who are like I don't know family litigators family law litigators where never marriages never work and everything always falls apart in relationship like you can feel yourself go oh this is not the place for me to meet my future guy okay we need to put

ourselves around the five people who can make the biggest impact on our life because their human brains only learn in three ways they learn through Reading they learn through the people that we spend time with in the places that we go and we learn through tragedy and bad happening so that is how you literally can change the human brain otherwise we're a culmination of all the thoughts we thought yesterday and the day before and the day before that so in order to get new in new inputs into this nogin okay you have three options I'm going to I'm definitely not choosing the tragedy option thank you I pass okay pass hard pass I love to read but I don't I I mean I don't always have time to read I try to Audible and read but you know what there's something about your eyes going left to right on a page you have to read to really get your brain to think differently and to rewire okay so you have option three third option the

persons or people you spend the most amount of time with the things that you listen to and the inputs on the frequency that you're around think about that so if you are not around High performing female entrepreneurs as a business owner you are missing the boat you are not excelling you are not pushing past barriers you are not rewiring your brain you are not seeing the potential future self that you could be you are stuck in the past so I think it is the the best time spent the best investment and the best way for you to see your future self is by getting into a group like in her fifth where you can actually see your own future self and do that Mind movie work to get your future self in there faster and be around people who really want to support you and see you win one of the things that I've seen that's so important about women investing in themselves and I know that when I was back in corporate I didn't know there

weren't if there were communities like this for people in corporate didn't know that they existed right like I didn't nobody was talking about it it wasn't people weren't having these conversations if they were doing it they were doing it in private which makes it even um you know it's more challenging to understand how people were leveling up if no one was sharing the information it goes back to the lack of sharing the lack of honesty and lack of transparency because I know now people were hiring coaches and were parts of different programs but they weren't sharing it in a community like inner fifth it's all about emptying your glass and sharing all of the things that you know it's all about sharing this this is where I'm leveling up or this is where I'm holding back and it's been so cool to be a part to hear some of the tactics and strategies one of being for a big breakthrough moment for me was that

writing that check to yourself moment which no one's teaching you this stuff in college right like so much of what I've learned just in the last few months why isn't this stuff being taught in school however none of it is and we're doing all these intenses we're in all these meetings and again people can opt in for the ones that fit their schedule they can get playback for the ones that they miss you you're going to Garner all the information in a timely way that works for you the important thing is to know this you don't need to go get an MBA or a PhD you're going to get that through a year-long membership at inner fifth and then some because you're also getting the network of the people who are connecting you to the VC that's actually going to invest in your company that's going to connect you to the woman that actually could be your co-founder to the it's incredible the legs that come out of something like this

community totally and that is one of of the things we encourage in every meeting which is how are you holding yourself and when when you're walking into the room are you setting intention that is one of our quarterly activities is the science of setting intention our eyes can't see and our ears can't hear what our brains are not looking for so if you are writing yourself a check Jim Carrey or 15 million for a movie you've never done before or whatever it may be you are all of a sudden writing yourself a number that says that is such a crazy number and you know what I'll tell you something Heather just a week ago because that last intensive I wrote myself the biggest check I've ever written myself and I will say to you this last week every time I'm in the shower at the gym I'm like is what I'm working on today moving me closer to that number on that check is this the viable path for me to get that or am I wasting my time

on crap that is not important that I could delegate and literally I didn't even know how powerful that number would be from three weeks ago or whatever it was that we wrote that to today but I I seriously go through it and I'm thinking oh my gosh I have these six things on my calendar probably five of these could go and I should be just doing this one and going all in because that's going to be what delivers the number what's interesting is that was such a small exercise that was part of a multi-day huge you we learned so much over those that intensive we were there but to your point I gave a talk at nor Eastern last week and I mentioned that exercise what is so wild is the event was sponsored by JP Morgan so there was a tremendous amount of financial analyst Specialists you know that were there from JP Morgan someone stood up during Q&A this was her specialty right this is what she does

for a living and she started talking us through the science of the exercise that we had all gone through as inner Fifth and she was talking about how Next Level it is for her clients and she was giving all these examples and it was just so eye opening for me because I would have never had that experience if I hadn't been a part of inter fifth you shouldn't have to as someone wanting to succeed in life as someone who wants to level up who wants to scale Revenue who wants to grow a bigger business you shouldn't have to be running back and forth from this vendor to that that vendor interviewing people to see who who should join your team when all you need to do is make one investment in yourself become a part of a community and be instantly connected to a group that has done all of these things and can instantly Elevate you it's been so incredible to watch and be a part of and and go through the experience with you

amen sister and by the way you know what I'm gonna hear a bunch of people say right now I don't have time to hire or I can't find a who because I don't have time I'm too busy and it takes so long I have to interview and then I have to train them guess what there are assessment tools we talk about this in inter fth there after out of all the assessment tools in the world that I've used in terms of hiring there's an assessment tool married with another one that I've used and I used it at hatch Beauty it took us from 30 million to 100 million and I only use that tool in hiring and what I mean by that is I stopped doing the interviews I stopped doing all the resume searching I stopped relying on the recruiters I would say to the recruiters here are my two tools have every applicant take at these two this test and then take this test and bring me back the three that match this profile and I will tell you another

fast-tracked way that inner fith teaches entrepreneurs how to be hyper productive is to stop howing it so again that when you who it it doesn't always have to be a person it can be a tool it can be a resource how do you FasTrack winning your time back and spending time on the things that deliver the the best Roi and I will say you do not have time and you do not have enough money or time if you're still working not to join if you're a female entrepreneur how do people know if they qualify um where do they need to go somewhere to check it out or can we share with them some um information so they know if it even makes sense for them to reach out yeah they can go to interi Inner fi.com I NN R fi fth and inner fifth is the five people we spend the most time with right so there's those that is where inner fifth comes from it also comes from the four pillars of health wealth relationship and purpose inner fifth sits in the

middle as the fifth bridge between the four pillars and what I would say is we are looking for growth mindset winning mindset seven figure and above you can have a high figure run rate to seven figures but we don't take startups because we want those new Founders who have never been in business before to go get resourced and find a place to go get the legal docs and HR docs and everything they need to be successful for their first couple of years if you've already had an exit and you are a multi- Serial entrepreneur and a new startup you're welcome to join because we believe those who have exited and are many times trying to figure out their plan C Act bde interner fith is the perfect place for you to come and figure out what the next phase of your life looks like but we do want seasoned entrepreneurs because it's really cral CR critical and crucial to the community environment that you're contributing as much as

you're give you're getting out of the group so yeah there's a qualifier you have to eat what you kill means you get a c one and you have to have a growth or winning mindset and you know we tell it we tell we can tell that through the interview process you know um and that that's really the key tell us a little bit for people who've never heard of inner fith before who are the allies and what importance do they have in um being a part of inter fift yeah that's the funny thing I hear from women a lot oh I don't know if I want to be part of an all women's group of entrepreneurs because men have so much to offer and we agree a th% in fact I will guarantee you cannot create wealth in business as an entrepreneur without having men in your corner and we have this incredible group of ma male Powerhouse allies who work really hard to be accepted as an ally and they go through an intense vetting process an intense interview process and

they have to have been exactly who they say they are in the world of supporting women in business so we we look at their background and their history and everything they've done in the world but we're very selective and we have a group of one phone call away from anyone you want to talk to allies who are part of this network and they surround these women members as the strong thoughtful strategic resource dudes that they are it's very cool it's incredible to see and again the contacts that you make just walking into one of these events it's instantaneous what would have taken you years on your own to even try to get to some of these people I have been blown away by the stories exposure and contacts that I've made so I just want to say Tracy thank you for being a person who had a struggle identified it and said you know what I don't want anyone else to go through this so I'm going to create the community and

opportunity so people don't have to go through that where can people find you and where can they find interner fi I am IG Tracy Holland mindset and I would love anyone to reach out say hi um and then inter fi.com and they can come to one of our quarterly IRL events we do one a quarter it starts at 10 goes till 5 and is packed for the day with the tools and resources that entrepreneurs need in order to be hyper successful and super performance- driven and very efficient with their time and there's also events where people can come in person to like the one we just had um in La um last week when are these happening monthly or every other month Taste of inter fith we allow people from non-member people to come and have a Vibe check have a taste of inter fith and we host a 4our um cocktail meat speaker conversation about something intensely helpful and sometimes private um for our founders who do share quite a bit about

the road or the the war wounds of what it took to build in scale um in an effort to help those that are also on that path so we usually have them in New York we have uh them in La we'll start to host some in Miami we have a couple for next year planned um and but we have members in inner fifth from all over the world and on our quarterly IRL meetings people fly in every quarter to participate in person because that's where the Juicy Business happens but they can also live stream in if they can't make it and then of course we have our monthly meetups we have our power hours our grow room and those are all virtual so there are lots of touch points but yeah if someone wants to get on the weight list to be at a taste of inner fth we have a weight list going get on the weight list you don't want to miss it we will be there we would love to meet you in.com um Tracy thank you so much for the work you're doing I am so

excited for our next intensive and for the incredible people that um you're bring forward to meet all of us I appreciate you well thank you for having me today such a fun way to spend the day all right guys go to in.com you can't afford to miss this there's no reason stop looking for the how and find the who you got her she's right here until next week keep creating your confidence you know I will be

Questions about this episode

What is "#476: The FASTEST Way To Build Your EMPIRE with Tracy Holland, Founder, Investor, Board Member..." about?

Tracy Holland, a seasoned entrepreneur and authority in beauty and wellness, shares her journey of building successful brands and empowering female entrepreneurs. She discusses her initiatives aimed at supporting women's leadership, her significant achievements in the industry, and insights into launching and growing consumer-focused businesses.

What is mentioned in this Heather Monahan episode?

21 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Inner Fifth, Tracy Holland, Hatch Beauty, Potential to Powerhouse, Goodwill Brands, Hatch Beauty Brands. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "#476: The FASTEST Way To Build Your EMPIRE with Tracy Holland, Founder, Investor, Board Member..."?

The episode runs 56 min; the transcript is about 9,533 words in 54 timestamped sections.

More from Heather Monahan

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated December 19, 2025.