EP 216 - Holly Haynes

Ellen Yin53min

Ellen Yin

00:00

You're listening to cubicle to CEO episode 216. Amazon created their own holiday with Prime Days. So why can't small businesses Holly Haynes had the same thought she was tired of competing against massive brands for advertising space during the Black Friday Cyber Monday craze, and being stressed about launching when she'd rather be spending time with her family. Thus her end of year 'Anti-Black Friday' campaign was born. A launch driving people to a private podcast funnel, which then primes listeners to join Holly's Anti-Social School program. In this case study will cover the strategic launch plan that generated $70,000 in revenue without relying on social media to spread the word. If you want to go social media optional this holiday season, and create sales hype on your own schedule. This one's for you.

Ellen Yin

00:53

Welcome to Cubicle to CEO the podcast. I'm your host, Ellen Yin. I quit my job without a backup plan and bootstrapped my first $300 freelance project into $2 million in revenue by age 28. On the show, you'll hear weekly case study interviews with leading entrepreneurs and CEOs who share one specific strategy that successfully grew their business revenue. Skip the expensive and time consuming learning curve of testing everything yourself by borrowing what actually works from the best and brightest mentors. You'll also get a front row seat to my founders journey through transparent income reports and behind the business solo episodes, subscribe now so we can grow together every Monday.

Ellen Yin

01:39

Hi, Holly. Welcome to the show today.

Holly Haynes

01:42

Hi, thank you so much for having me.

Ellen Yin

01:44

We're so thrilled to have you. This is a pretty like chunky case study, which I'm really excited about. There's so many different facets and angles I want to dive into around your Anti Social campaign, your Anti-Black Friday. It's just a really novel idea. And I'm seeing this movement grow around people wanting to find other ways to market their business off of social media. So I think the timing is perfect, especially as when this episode airs. We're nearing the Black Friday, Cyber Monday mayhem. So Holly, we'll get to that case study in just a moment. But first, of course, I want to hear your cubicle to CEO story. How did you make that jump into entrepreneurship?

Holly Haynes

02:26

Yeah, so I would say it's definitely a true cubicle to CEO story. I have a 22 year corporate strategy career. So I was like in it to win it in the corporate life for a really long time. And if I'm being honest, I never in a million years thought I would own my own business like it was never on the radar, I never thought it would be something that I would do. And the story that I love to tell is I was in grad school. And it was some sort of finance class, I always joke like, I don't do math after 3pm. I know it's important, but it's just not my favorite subject. And we had a guest speaker come in. And her name was Jeni Britton Bauer from Jeni's ice cream cheese from Columbus, Ohio. And she was just getting started, I was like, Oh, my gosh, we're gonna have to go like through her finances. Like, I don't want to do this at eight o'clock at night. And it was the total opposite she came in. And she was talking about how being able to run her business when she makes like, really curated like fabulous ice cream, has been able to allow her to have more time with her family and to make a bigger impact in the community. And at the time, I didn't have kids, I just got married. And I was like, I think I'm thinking about this all wrong. Like I kept thinking, like, I want to have the office with the door that shuts and have the team and like, have all the things. And I just remember her sharing that story. And I was like, I don't know if I can do that. Like, I think I'm on the wrong path, which at the time was just like, not the best moment because you know, you just invest all this money into school and you think that you're doing all the right things.

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