Holly Valentine is a 26-year-old business owner, social media influencer, and branding specialist who has proven through her accomplishments that she can succeed in any endeavor she undertakes. Sure, this social media star has amassed a staggering 1.5 million followers on Instagram, but social media doesn’t begin to define this young entrepreneur. Holly is a very unique individual, as her intelligence and experience have given her a skill set that very few possess, allowing her to be her own boss and take on multiple roles by herself that would typically require numerous people to fulfill. With an impressive knack for business and a tireless work ethic, Holly’s entrepreneurial success has only just begun.
Holly began her journey as a college student at Cal State Fullerton where she excelled in the classroom as a business major. After three years, she received a job offer that she couldn’t turn down- a position with a renowned marketing agency. Holly credits this job with teaching her valuable marketing skills, as well as giving her insight into the world of business management, which she would later need. Some of her responsibilities included business development, book keeping, creating monthly content schedules for clients, and pairing talent with the appropriate campaigns. Holly continued to work hard, helping a number of influencers and other talent find success. Along the way, she began to wonder if she could replicate the success she had achieved for others on her own social media.
Holly made the decision to try and grow her social media as an experiment for fun, and began applying her knowledge of the social media space to her own social media accounts. As someone who already had a vast amount of knowledge in this lucrative space as a manager for many influencers, Holly had an advantage compared to others just starting out; however, prior to this point, she had no modeling experience whatsoever. Luckily, Holly is a fast learner, and quickly learned the tricks of the trade. Holly admits that beginning this process was very difficult, as she experienced a lot of self-doubt despite her extensive knowledge working with many influencers at her job. As an aspiring influencer, she had to learn how to navigate the many different personalities on the internet, how to manage her time efficiently, how to budget for content necessities, and how to meet platform guidelines while still making quality content. She eventually mastered these concepts and gained confidence as an influencer, and her social media growth began to rapidly increase as a result. Holly is known for her relatable, funny personality online, and although she considers her photos sexy, she knows that her loyal fan base appreciates her transparent personality more than anything.
Although she was finding great success as an influencer, Holly was unexpectedly fired from her marketing job. While this was very discouraging and hard for Holly to initially process, she was soon able to draw motivation from the situation, and applied it to everything she did going forward. Holy stated the following:
“Getting fired from my previous marketing job was the best motivation I could have ever asked for. Proving people wrong is such a big motivator for my success, and that was exactly the push that I needed to really put myself out
there and believe in myself.” -Holly Valentine
During this transition period, Holly was on a trip in Napa with one of her friends who would soon become the co-founder of their company. They were both very inspired by the current trends in the beverage industry, as the younger generations were beginning to find their preferred tastes. Holly realized that the wine industry had been slow to innovate strategies to attract new customers, many of which would soon be reaching the legal drinking age. With this in mind, she expressed to her friend that it was an opportune time to create something edgy and fun in an industry that had not seen a lot of new ideas. Together, they co-founded a beverage and lifestyle brand.
For Holly, becoming a business owner required her to adjust her thinking, as she often creates and posts whatever content she deems suitable in her work as an influencer; however, with her beverage business, she must keep all of the strict rules and government regulations in mind with every decision that is made. Her beverage brand quickly found success, and aside from a great team, Holly attributes the swift growth to an edgy brand name as well as a plethora of products. Holly strongly believes that her beverage brand’s product line differentiates them from competitors in the industry. She stated, “We have a wine line, a beer line, and a whiskey line, all of which over deliver on quality for the price. Being in three different categories is very unique for a beverage company.”
Holly Valentine bridges the gap between “Instagram model” and businesswoman, and she has made it her mission to empower women worldwide. She is very passionate about motivating the next generation of female entrepreneurs, and always strives to lead by example. We would like to wish Holly the best with her future endeavors, and we commend her on her inspiring success thus far.
You can keep up with Holly on her Website, or feel free to follow her on Instagram.
