How Hilary Hartling Made The Transition From Marketing Exec To Entrepreneur
Do you want to become an entrepreneur? Many people have dreams of becoming an entrepreneur, but most are too afraid to take the leap because they don’t want to fail. However, we recently sat down with personal branding expert Hilary Hartling to talk about her transition from marketing executive to entrepreneur, and her success story might inspire you to make the change you've been contemplating! Hilary Hartling is a marketing & brand strategist with a strong track record of identifying and creating brand consistency and integrated marketing promotions with global brands, including Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Dreamworks. Combining her experience as a Disney marketing executive & leader along with her strategies as a Certified High Performance Coach, Hilary is now an Entrepreneur and Founder of HELLO, YOU Personal Branding where she helps people develop and implement their personal brand so that they can live their best life!
Hilary Hartling will be joining our next Session as a guest speaker to talk all about personal branding! Don’t forget to purchase your tickets HERE for the opportunity to learn more about how to create a brand for yourself. In the meantime, check out our Q&A with Hilary below:
SS: Explain your transition from movie marketing executive to entrepreneur. There’s something very addictive about doing what you love. I’ve loved movies my whole life and the fact that I pursued my dream job of working in marketing for a major film studio, realized that dream, grew up within the movie studio ranks to become an executive leading my own team, and crafting strategic and creative marketing campaigns on a daily basis for movies I loved? Amazing. The hard part is finding balance in what can become an all-consuming job. If you’re doing something you love, you tend to go all-in and give 150% of yourself. And I did this for 15 years and realized that I needed to change how I’m investing my energy so that I could pursue dreams in every area of my life, including my career.
I had been operating at a level of stress and fight-or-flight for so long, I hardly recognized myself anymore. So, I decided to transition out of my position as a movie marketing executive and take some time off. For over a year, I spent time reconnecting with myself and my passions, deciding who I really want to be and what I want to do next. After road-tripping with my sister in New Zealand, laying on the beach in Tulum, listening to inspirational speakers, attending motivational workshops, renovating my backyard, reading novels for fun, and taking myself on regular “artist dates” to invigorate my creativity, I decided that I wanted to be my own boss. I stepped right onto the entrepreneurship train and haven’t looked back!
SS: When did you realize entrepreneurship was for you? I realized entrepreneurship was right for me when I felt like going back to a regular 9-5 wasn’t what I wanted. It was time to evolve and grow my career with who I was becoming. I will always like movies, but everyone’s tastes and goals and desires change over time. I was ready for that next step and stepping into a world where I could not only help make a bigger difference in peoples’ lives, but also design my own life and be my own boss? The transition to entrepreneur was a no-brainer.
SS: What is personal branding? Personal Branding is how you present yourself and show up in the world. It’s how others perceive you and it includes every experience people have when they interact with you. Having a successful personal brand means you understand who you are, your strengths, and unique value and present yourself that way consistently. It means you’ve found your voice and can offer up something no one else can — you and your perspective.
Personal branding isn’t a new concept. However, most people are discussing how you use your personal brand to get hired, promoted, or simply raise your profile at work. Those are great reasons to develop your personal brand, and they’re all true. In addition to that, I believe that you are more than just your work. If we’re talking about a brand, we need to look at every aspect of that brand — a 360-degree view, so to speak. As a person, you have interests and goals for your career, but you also have life goals. Goals for your relationships, your family, your finances, your home, your spirituality, your travel, and hobbies.
SS: Are there similarities between marketing and personal branding? Any differences? Absolutely! You can look at personal branding as a way of marketing yourself. It’s not very different than deciding how to market a business brand. You need to know your purpose, your mission & vision and how you want your target audiences to perceive you. You are crafting a story to tell about YOU just as you would when you’re selling a movie, for example. Think about a movie trailer. A trailer highlights all the great stuff about that movie — what makes it different than all the other movies? What is the compelling story is that will make people want to see it? It’s colorful, exciting, moving…and it’s well thought out and strategic. It’s designed to appeal to specific target audiences and its purpose is to entertain.
You get to decide for YOU what unique value and colorful stories you bring to the table that you can share with the world to help you achieve your goals. Personal branding takes some thought, but it’s also fun! It’s connecting the dots back to who you really are and becoming your most authentic self.
SS: Do you have any advice for someone who is considering becoming an entrepreneur? Yes! Develop your personal brand first! Take some time reconnecting to yourself and knowing exactly what you bring to the table. I’d also say that it’s so important to surround yourself with other entrepreneurs and people who are on a similar journey to yours. I’m such a social person and I feed off of other people’s good energy! But, becoming an entrepreneur can be isolating when you’re working alone from home. So, finding a new tribe of amazing and supportive entrepreneurs is vital in starting your journey as an entrepreneur. And, have fun!
Learn more from Hilary at our next Session! Topic: Let’s Get Crafty! Who Are You & How to Brand Yourself Date: January 21, 2017 from 9am to 12pm Location: La Piazza @ The Grove Sponsored by H2Rose All guests will receive coffee, a bottle of H2Rose, and delicious empanadas & acai bowls from Ubatuba.
Purchase your tickets HERE for only $50!