Year Four: The Beauty of Becoming
Before I launch into my thoughts around all of this… let me just take a moment to stop. Breathe. Pause. Acknowledge this milestone. Be grateful.
Four. Wow.
How did it go by so quickly and also feel like it’s taken a lifetime to get here? I was actually just saying to a friend yesterday that I don’t really feel like Holme is 4. I mean, it is, but the first two were really blending its existence with also being a full-time makeup artist/salon owner, and with only a couple of SKUs in the range, I only feel like Holme Beauty has truly existed as a full-blown cosmetics brand for 2 years.
This past year we have launched the Hytride Flex Concealers, Stay Glaze’s, Lip Locks, Milo Lipgloss, Show Toppers & our upgraded Loyal Lash Mascara. We had an incredible Holme Coming Tour in our custom double-decker bus up the east coast of Australia and lots of beautiful moments with our customers over events, masterclasses and in our studio experience (they will come back, I promise).
It’s been in the past 2 years where it’s felt like the biggest mountain to climb, the longest, hilliest marathon to run, and an experience so in equal pairing of joy/pleasure/abundance to stress/fear/lack I will ever experience. And as many people more experienced in this space have told me, these are normal growth experiences of Holme Beauty growing into a successful & meaningful company.
The pain points have been felt in all of my lack as a founder. My traumas play out every day, frustratingly, and even though I continue to show up every day to work on them, the experiences of my childhood continue to play out. Am I enough? Am I worthy of the success, a team that cares & being seen? Am I safe?
Of course all these answers are yes, but these are the stories many tell ourselves. And I even question if leading and being transparent in this way is too much or not palatable for the growth this brand so deserves. It’s not a common practice for this type of visibility in a business, without the focus on sharing it to be a cool marketing moment or to get likes. I do it because it’s as authentically me as I know, and one thing I have learnt in this life is that there needs to be more light shone on the true realities of life.
As the incredible Dr. Orna Guralnik said on a recent podcast: “Life is difficult and it’s amazing, but there is always loss, there’s always a challenge. It’s the stuff of life, and I welcome that. That’s what life is about.”
I promised myself when I started Holme Beauty 4 years ago that I didn’t want to create a false sense of reality, lead people on, or show the perfect. I started Holme because I didn’t just believe from my personal experiences, but from all of the thousands & thousands of interactions I had as a makeup artist with clients who themselves felt not worthy or enough. I knew all those years ago that when I did a makeup brand, I wanted it to be one that represents truth, reality & shows that it’s ok to exist amongst it all and do so truthfully, vulnerably and imperfectly. To create a business where the community held space for it, banded together in pride knowing others out there want to also show up authentically like this.
So my little internal dialogue I have with myself, and a bigger conversation I have with my therapist, is how to show up like this whilst keeping most of it for me. How can I lead impactfully and show up authentically without giving me away? Outsourcing my power is something I have done since I was a little girl. “Surely someone will come and save me.”
“Will you help me?”
“Will you see me?”
“Am I worthy of your love?”
I share this here because I believe I am not the only one. Many of us as children had to learn to survive this way, so I find myself here at 4 years old in the business… and where am I at?
I’m in the bloody depths. Growth is fucking hard. Transitions of small business to medium business are rattling. Cash flow as a self-funded beauty brand is incredibly tight. Doing this the way I am is unheard of. But gee, we are sooo close to the transition into being profitable, and all of this hard work & sacrifice means wonderful things for the business, myself, AND the customer.
So as I wallow a little, I start to map out of it… where to from here?
I level up. I get smarter. I grow out of this phase.
We are so close to getting the business to a position of really big success - the roadmap is there. And myself and the team have been working really hard on it for a year. And to celebrate it along the way for the next 8 months, we have some of the most incredible launches coming your way. I have brought on a team that will level the business up in all the ways, and I continue to build a brand that has genuine impact, meaning and care in your makeup bag & on your face.
You will start to see some true growth coming from Holme now as the team expands, the product line gets bigger, our values become clearer & clearer in our marketing, and our overall brand offering to you, our beloved customer, gets better & better.
For me, these past 4 years have been a rollercoaster. Sometimes fun and full of laughter, other times full of fear & surprise. But as I personally start to really move my way out of my history laying its burdens on my present & future, I am so excited to step into the founder I know I can and want to be.
And I do it with conviction in my heart that Holme is here to change lives and people’s sense of self-worth - and is already actually doing it - right now in this moment (still blows my mind). Bring on our 4th year and continuing to build this incredible thing with you! This is just as much a Happy Birthday to you as it is to the team & me. So much of who we are & what we are doing are because of you. So thank you, my love. Thanks for existing to remind me of my why.
All my love,
Hilary x