She Built a $100M Beauty Empire. Then She Almost Walked Into Traffic.

Hatch Beauty Founder Tracy Holland on the hidden cost of building at all costs. 

Tracy Holland built Hatch Beauty into a $100 million beauty empire in five and a half years. Self-funded.

Three kids under five. EY Entrepreneur of the Year. A manufacturing facility in Durham, North Carolina.

Business with some of the biggest retailers in the world. Every metric of success you could point to and say, she made it. And then she could not keep up with her own success.

One morning at 7:15, after another three-hour sleep night, with 14 minutes and 30 seconds calculated to get coffee, use the bathroom and make it to her 7:15 AM appointment, she pulled over on Pico Boulevard and thought three steps into traffic would fix everything.That is where this conversation starts.

We talk about secret keeping. About what it does to you when the outside image and the inside reality stop matching. When everyone around you sees the success, the beautiful children, the thriving business,

the awards and you cannot find a single person you trust enough to tell the truth to. About perfectionism and the refusal to give yourself any grace. About the identity that gets built around being the one who has it together, who never breaks, who figures it out. And how that identity becomes its own kind of prison.

We talk about the cost of the hustle and growth-at-all-cost culture. The real version. The marriage held together with one hand while building a company with the other. And what happens when your life gets
tired of waiting and screams back at you.

Tracy shares the turning point. The daily practices that recalibrated her thinking. How she rebuilt a $27 million business in 24 months after walking away from everything. And the question that changed everything for her. Listen to the episode and find out.

I know Tracy personally. I watched her. She always looked amazing on the outside. Truly an inspiring woman and founder. After this conversation I love her even more because of her raw honesty and willingness to share the hard things from her journey.

This is one of the most honest conversations I have had on this show. If you have ever built something and wondered what it is costing you, this episode is for you.

About Tracy Holland 

I’m a founder, investor, and operator who has spent more than two decades building brands and businesses with women who lead. I co-founded HATCHBEAUTY and helped scale it to over $750M in cumulative wholesale revenue, launching and growing brands like Naturewell, Nuance by Salma Hayek, BLISS Color, FOUND Active, and Orlando Pita Haircare.

The pod discusses alignment of spirituality and strategy.:
My work sits at the intersection of mindset, intuition, and strategic execution. I believe true business growth happens when you align who you are with how you lead, combining inner clarity with smart, scalable strategy. 
I help women step into their power by strengthening both their mindset and their business strategy. That means building confidence, trusting their instincts, and pairing that with proven frameworks to grow, scale, and lead. It’s not either/or, it’s both.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

She is a woman that went, that built a $100 million company in five years. One Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

That was when I was at the pinnacle of my success from the outside world. We were doing business with some of the biggest retailers in the world. I was CEO and co-founder of this growing business. I had one entrepreneur of the year. I had three beautiful children. I was running on three to four hours of sleep every evening. And I remember thinking to myself, I really don't see how I can keep up doing this for any long term. And I actually see no way out. How do you stop being CEO of your own business? And I thought, you know what? Three steps into traffic, and everyone would think it's an accident.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Today is so special. And I already got emotional just talking about going in this interview. With me today is my good friend Tracy Holland, somebody I personally admire. And this is somebody I wish only the very best in life for her because her story is just extraordinary. She is a woman that went, that built a hundred million dollar company in five years, won Ernst ⁇ Young, Entrepreneur of the Year, and then she found herself standing on Pico Boulevard thinking that three steps into traffic would somehow fix all her problems. She is the founder of Hatch Beauty and Inna Fifth. And I can't tell you how excited I am, Tracy, to welcome you to the show today. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. So, what does it feel like to stand at this moment at Pico Boulevard and have these crazy thoughts go through your mind? What led to this step?

SPEAKER_02 1:56

You know, um, there are these moments, these inflection points. And it was ironic at that time because that was when I was at the pinnacle of my success from the outside world. And what I mean by that is we had a manufacturing facility that we had acquired in Durham, North Carolina, with over 60 employees. We were doing business with some of the biggest retailers in the world. I was CEO and co-founder of this growing business. I had one entrepreneur of the year. I had three beautiful children. I was married and thinking, how do I stay in this marriage? How do I ensure that I can raise these children and not screw this up? How can I continue to keep my pacing of what it takes to build a business without investment capital? Well, so you're self-funding everything. How do I maintain my health and well-being? I was running on three to four hours of sleep every evening. And I'll never forget that morning at 7 a.m. where I pulled over to grab a Starbucks on Pico Boulevard, run into the bathroom, use the ladies' room, get back in the car, and be at my 7:15 appointment. And so I knew I had 14 minutes and 30 seconds to do all of these things. And I remember thinking to myself, I really don't see how I can keep up doing this for any long term. And I actually see no way out. I don't know how to sell a company. I don't know how to get out of my own business. How do you stop being CEO of your own business? How do you tell your kids, I don't know how to do this? How do you go to your husband who you're married to and say, I'm not happy, I don't want to be in this relationship with you anymore? And so it all felt so overwhelming. And I remember this flash as I was stepping out of the car and looking at this truck that was heading down Pico about 50 miles an hour. And I thought, you know what? Three steps into traffic and everyone would think it's an accident. And that was the moment in which I ran inside Starbucks and instead of getting a coffee, I went right into the bathroom and sobbed. And I sat there and I said, How is it possible that I feel so lonely? How do I feel so lonely when from the outside everyone thinks I have everything and I don't even know who to turn to? How do I even tell my therapist? What if I tell them how I'm feeling and they take my kids away? Or they do something even worse. And so that moment for me was slowly but surely pacing myself to unwind the things that I knew were no longer going to serve me and say goodbye, or shut the door, or extract myself from the relationships and from the pace that I knew would eventually be my demise, one way or another. And so it was really that journey that I share with women. And my purpose in starting Inner Fifth was to be a bridge or connection point for women who have a deep passion to build companies and to participate in seeing their creative vision come true, but not doing it at all costs.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

The perception other people have of you, and for people that can't see you, that are listening to the interview, Tracy's gorgeous, by the way. So she also has the physical appearance and she has the intelligence and she has the business success. Did you feel like the the image that you had of yourself wasn't matching the outside, or is an outside image that other people had sort of uh taken over who you really were? Is I know it's a weird question, but I know you you you'll be the only one who knows how to answer that.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Yeah, I think there's an element of secret keeping when you're at a place of being so fried and so stressed and being pushed to the limit, there's a secret keeping that's toxic, right? So your ability to express yourself and say, hey, I'm really having a tough time here. I don't know what to tackle first. The pace that I have right now in my business is not going to be sustainable. And going from zero to almost a hundred million in revenue and five and a half years self-funded is a feat into itself. And then you layer on top of that being a mom of three children under the age of five. And then you layer on top of that being a wife and all of the things that the community expects, the school expects you to participate. Big sale. All the fit full-time jobs that we we have. And so the secret keeping comes from, first of all, a place of why can't I keep up with this and what's wrong with me? And why does everyone else make it look so easy and what what's happening? Right. And so the secret keeping then moves into well, I can't really talk about this because people are going to think that I can't handle it, or that I don't have control of my business, or that my kids will somehow feel like I'm a deficient mom. So I think the first step is acknowledging that you're at capacity and then starting to talk to those around you and asking for support and asking for help and saying, where do I start and where do I turn? And it's really about being vulnerable and being open and being okay with not having all the answers and saying, I'm really at capacity. But the the beauty of this moment truly was the evolution of the spiritual journey that then I was allowed to reprioritize my life in a way that really acknowledges the thing that's most important to me, which is first spiritual alignment. And then once I sit in that alignment, I can come from a place of feeling replenished rather than depleted.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Did you have a spiritual practice before you became so successful?

SPEAKER_02 8:46

I did in my teens and my twenties, deep spiritual practice. And then in my 30s, I abandoned it to pursue all the business things because I think I didn't have time. I had to make a choice. And time was such an important utilization of time and productivity was so important. And so I really did make a conscious decision to kind of say to myself, I don't have time for this right now. I'm going to put this aside. And once I sell my business, then I can come back to this. Once I sell my business, then I can go on vacation. And once I sell my business, then I can spend time with my kids or go to these extracurricular activities, all those things. So it was always a future-facing reality and always sitting in the place of present moment, feeling very depleted and worried about how I was going to keep up. And I think COVID changed that for a lot of people. I think it forcibly changed, changed how people operate. It slowed people down. But, you know, 2026 is a very, this year has been a very big and stressful time in the world. And for those of us who are running companies, who have employees, it brings me back to that place that I was in 2017. And it makes me question and ask myself, is this my my truest and highest purpose? Is this what I'm called to do? Do I need to say goodbye to certain things or to certain relationships or people? And is this, am I in my aligned higher self version of who I want to be?

SPEAKER_01 10:28

I I find this so powerful because it I'm going through something very similar. You and I were both uh Palisades fire survivors. So you also lost your house. And it was last week where I'm sitting down, and and I mentioned this when we were in the green room, and I'm sitting down with a friend, and he says to me, Well, tell me about the demands on your time. And I said, Well, realistically, I'm gonna need a full day a week just to deal with the house. Because we have to make every decision from doorknobs to doorbells to colors. I mean, it's it's what a million decisions that you have to make. The lighting, where the power lines are gonna go. Are you gonna, are they gonna go underground? Are they gonna go above ground? You have to do the calculations with the political climate, you know, the the the whiplish, the tariffs, the the oil, you can't even calculate half of it because it might be $1,000 today and $10,000 tomorrow, only to be $5,000 next week, depending on when you buy. So there is such a demand on you. Now, as somebody who has done these heart decisions before, where you sit down and said, okay, it is too much. I'm losing myself, I'm I'm virtually killing myself. I I I had to say this in January when I'm in the emergency room, you know, and I have my surgeries, I'm going like, I am killing myself with grief and with the with a stress. What do you do to go to when you are under this moment and say, okay, I know this is what's being asked for? And then what do you do? Because that's I I'm finding myself completely overwhelmed with this. Am I going to shut down on my social media? Am I going to let the social media people go? Am I going to continue the podcast? You know, do I love anything more than having this conversation with you? Is this a good spend of my time? How do you have these difficult questions and how do you make decisions?

SPEAKER_02 12:27

It's a great question. I just spoke to someone I admire very deeply. His name is Dr. Sri Rao, R-A-O. And he has something called the Rao Institute and Indian man, author of many books, and he is a longtime devotee of the lineage of Parmahansa Yogananda and many of the great masters. And, you know, the thing that it always resonates for me when I speak to him that really rings true for me is he says, you know, Tracy, everything you're in pursuit of that's diminishing your time and your energy, everything you're in your pursuit of is not because you actually want that thing. It's because you want the feeling of what you believe it will feel like once you have it. So you don't actually really want to own a big $100 million, $500 million, billion dollar company any longer. You've already done that. And the fact that you will be pursuing it to rebuild it is something inside of you that says, once I have that, then I will feel X, Y, and Z. Or once I have my house and the Palisades rebuilt, and I can sit on my deck and look out at the dolphins playing on the, you know, you're going to feel fulfilled that you were able to come back from the ashes and rebuild something that you believe that the city took from you because of their negligence. And it's the pursuit of the feeling that you're wishing for. And he said, once you're sitting in that house and that becomes habit, then you're going to play into the next thing that you want and the next pursuit. And so I think that that's a powerful reminder to all of us to ask ourselves, what is it that we're in pursuit of? Because what is the feeling that we're missing and the feeling that we want to recreate in order to be able to fulfill, to feel fulfilled.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

So powerful. Um it's very similar to literally the experience I had like three days ago. And when when when he asked me, why do you even want that? And I didn't really quite have an answer. And then he said, Well, let's just hypothetically speaking, what would happen if you let it all go? And at first I feel this angsty, angsty sensation, then I felt relief. And then I thought, well, let's be realistic here. Do we really bring in business because we got social media? When was the last time you bought something because you saw Carol sell on Instagram? Probably never. Mm-hmm. So where do you think this comes from in your in in all this personal work that you've done and what you've seen in the work with other women? Where does this relentless pursuit of the next thing come from?

SPEAKER_02 15:30

It's such a great question. I don't know what your personal beliefs are, and those who are listening really have to dig deep and ask themselves. But I had a realization about six years ago that was tied to a realization I had at age seven. So funny enough, my aunt took me to self-realization fellowship, SRF, in Incinitis. I was walking the grounds at age seven, and a monk came up to me and he put his hands on top of my head and he looked at me and he said, You're destined to do some very important things in this lifetime, and your path is very, very important. And I remember looking up at seven thinking, I don't know what that means, but it feels important to me. And he seems pretty legitimate, like an important guy. And fast forward to some of the breakdowns and some of the rebuilding that I've done over the last decade. When I think about now some of the successes I've had in the last 24 months, I from from nothing, from scratch, from uh just an idea, I built a business and we generated $27 million in 24 months. First year we did 11 million, and the second year we did 16 million and sold it in at the end of the 25th month. Okay. And when I think about the ability that I have to create something out of nothing, and to not only create it, but bring it into the world, transact it, build it, have the momentum, the resonance, and watch the world shift to make room for these things that we create from our our thoughts and our on our what-ifs. There's something incredibly magical about our abilities, each of us, to bring into physical, tangible, 3D dimensional world a thought from our minds and make it a reality. And I I only bring that example up because I'll tell you, over the 24 months that I was doing that, I was not happy. I actually was in a business relationship with a partner that I was actually pretty unhappy with. It was not aligned. And I thought to myself, oh my gosh, I did it again. I just built myself back into another relationship with someone that I'm building all this value with that I don't actually really enjoy being around. And I don't know if we're even aligned in our values. Her values and my values look very different. And what do I do now? Because I see myself in a repeating cycle. And I appreciated that moment in which I got to really understand the power of our momentum and our energy. And when we focus on what we want to do and create, we're unstoppable as humans. But the diversion, the restlessness, the out of alignment, the dis-ease, right? All of those things are zapping our energy. They're pulling us away from our core reason for being here on the planet. So when you ask me, how do you decide where to spend your time? How do you decide this worst case scenario you just provided of like letting it all go? And what does that look like? I think you have to shift into, and I would prefer the exercise of shifting into is like, how good could it get? And what could that look like? How good could it get? And what if I backtracked and built from there? And what would it feel like for me to be in business, not with someone else who I don't want to be in business with, with where waking up every day and I'm dreading a phone call with her and I'm dreading her business partners and all the rigma roll I have to deal with in order to maintain that? What if I just woke up and I was in business for myself? And I employed people who really lit me up and who I enjoyed being with and who made me feel connected and we could have conversations like this along with building a business. Like, how would that feel? And so I just made a choice. And now I'm in a very choiceful place where I'm looking at different companies to buy. I'm seeing if I'm aligned to the vision of what the business is. And then my core decision is I will own it a hundred percent. I will own the business. And then I'm gonna bring all the people in as leaders that feel really aligned to how I want to feel every day when I wake up. And so it's kind of like a reset of the vision of who I want to be in the world and how I want to feel when I wake up every day. Because as Dr. Rao says, it's all just a fleeting dream.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

How do you and this is a very, very personal question because I'm I'm experiencing this. I think there's an image talking sort of about myself and then turning it toward you. There's an image I have of myself as I the company to Bill Gates, and then my expectation of myself that everything that I had to touch since then must be successful, which it certainly is not. The fear, the one-hid wonder, the age and the relevancy. There's so many voices in my head and not just in my head, I think in the heads of so many people, whatever they the those voices might be or say. What is your practice? And you and you shared one, you speak to somebody who speaks the truth and wisdom. But what's the practice to keep that, to keep that real? Because I now, just in the couple of days since this question was asked, what would happen? I find that my brain's already starting to think a different way. But I didn't know that last Friday. So now do you have any trip tricks for us or advice? How can we differentiate, you know, what's going on in our heads?

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Yeah, sure. Well, and how important is it that you're saying what so many people are not realizing, or maybe they do, is my talk track is. Not serving me. Some of the feedback I'm giving myself, some of the ruminating thoughts, these are not healthy for me. And I need to shift gears. Like, what's that look like? How do I make that shift? And every day I wake up, I have a journal and it's a two-part journal. So in the morning, it asks me eight prompts on the left side of the page. And it the prompts are very important to me. So if I were a high-performing coach giving myself feedback, what would I tell myself today? What things could hold me back? What person do I need to reach out to today and say, I appreciate you or thank you so much for being in my life? What is the one thing that I wish I had time for to do today that I don't, but I know it's on my radar and I have to get to it at some point? So it has these journal prompts on the left side. On the right side, you write at the end of the day a reflection of how your day actually went. And one of the questions it asks on the left side of the page is what kind of energy or who is it that you're walking into your day feeling like or being? And I always say either I'm walking in with Oprah style energy or I'm walking in with Oprah meets Tony Robbins or Oprah meets Warren Buffett. Because to me, I look at Warren and I see a man who's a contrarian investor. So when the markets all fli freak out and go one way, he goes the other way, which I think is such an interesting approach. You know, when everyone's investing in crypto, he goes and invests in McDonald's. He's this total contrarian thinker. But I appreciate his willingness to slow down and to be discerning. And I think each of us have to take time. And for me, this journal prompt on the left takes 10 minutes. At the end of the day, it takes 10 minutes to reflect. But there's something in the wiring of our brains that when we come in with very specific to-dos, tasks, or lists that we're keeping for ourselves of how we want to start our day and then how we reflected on how we ended it. There's something that keeps you in calibration through the day as you're making decisions on where you're going to spend your time. So I think that's number one. Number two, I have a series of podcasts that I listen to as I fall asleep, thoughts and thought leaders. Parmahansa Yogananda is one of them. Wayne Dyer is a second one. Neville Goddard is another one. And I listen to 20 to 30 minutes. So I put it on YouTube and I set my sleep timer for 20 minutes and I listen to it as I go to sleep because I think we underestimate our subconscious power of how we think and how we're processing as we're falling asleep and in sleep state. That's the number two thing I do. And the number three thing I do is I read every single day some spiritual great master's work. And it could be a one-page. I have a couple things by my desk that I I reference every single day. Ernest uh Holmes is one of my favorite authors. And he wrote a book called This Thing Called You. And it's you could pick up the book and open any single page and just read. And he has something so powerful. And I do believe higher vibration frequency, when we pull our energy into a place of being more optimistic and less punitive with ourselves, the world opens up differently.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

I hear a lot of clean thinking strategies where you really have learned how to work with your nervous system and your habits, and you created something that works for you. And I think it's so important, and thank you for sharing that on the show. Because it's so easy to get caught in the opposite and the social media and what the news are doing, and they're getting all enraged about all these things, and then suddenly your energy goes in a totally different place that is really not helpful in building the future that you want to create for yourself. So what are you creating for yourself?

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Right now? Yes. It's interesting. So I've been a passion project, has been the podcast, Potential to Powerhouse. I love talking to Powerhouse Women and finding out how they navigated their hills and valleys. I do spend quite a bit of time with Inner Fifth and teaching women how to live stream and how to connect on digital in a way that gives them freedom to be able to start to tell their story. And actually, live streaming isn't about selling, it's about live stream connecting. And once you connect, people buy from you and people trust you and want to follow you. So I believe that live streaming has just hit the tip of the iceberg on what's possible. And I spend quite a bit of time helping women. But I'm I'm putting asset bids in for purchasing of businesses. And I've been looking at companies now for about three to four months, everything from home to accessories to beauty. And I will make a decision on one of those purchases over the next couple of weeks. And then once I close on that, I'll dig in and build my neck my next platform in which I buy companies and put it onto my shared services platform. And I will bring people on to the to the team that I get fired up just thinking about working with.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

I meet a lot of people. There are very few people like you out there. And your sincerity and your just inner, inner beauty is so apparent and and it is so refreshing. You have this thing about you where you you don't hold the wisdom back. You allow the wisdom to come through. And that is what I think is so absolutely inspiring for me. So you as we wrap this up, uh I cannot believe this is already at time. But so people can find you where. So through your podcast, Potential the Powerhouse, which I recommend everybody to listen to. Inner Fifth, what is Inner Fifth?

SPEAKER_02 28:16

Inner Fifth started as a membership community for high-performing female entrepreneurs to come focus on their health, wealth, relationship, and purpose and really bring that into balance. Because if you don't have your stool balanced, one leg on the stool is too big, too small, you know, the stool falls over. So it's it was a personal passion of mine. I've had over 3,000 women come through inner fifth in the last four and a half years. Wow. And now this year, I want to focus on something very tangible because it made such a difference in my life over the last two years of going from zero to building this last business and selling it. Live stream selling to me is a new way for women to make a complete impact on how they live day-to-day and create wealth for themselves by doing it at home and being part of a community. And it's there's a formula and there's an approach, but I'm I'm completely laser focused right now this year on Inner Fifth, being our how-to version of to learn how to live stream sell and to build your personal brand online. But that's where you know my passion is, and that's where I spend time. But I will take all my knowledge and go build out another business. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

And I and and I and I follow you on on both. And um you said just I think was it a week or two weeks ago, you said there the secret to that this is the you have to believe it yourself.

unknown 29:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

That is the big secret to everything. That's the secret. You can't sell anything that you don't believe yourself. And I thought i i it's remarkable remarkable in its simplicity to say, don't bother if you don't buy it yourself, because then you're convincing yourself, convincing other people, and you know, and first things first. So where do people find you, or where do they find Inner Fifth or uh the podcast obviously everywhere everywhere the podcast is an Inner Fifth?

SPEAKER_02 30:26

Tracy M. Holland on Instagram, follow me there, and then everything I do kind of hub and spoke comes from there. I also have a substack, Tracy M. Holland, and it just gives you a place to come and the content is free and you know, whatever is is helpful. I just tried to share things that have been uniquely helpful in getting me over these certain humps of things that have been challenging and finding a fast track way to do it without hoarding the information, right? There's there's so much to be shared with other people. And we are the culmination of the five people we spend the most amount of time with. So it's really, really important that you check who those five people are and make decisions. Do they stay or do they go? And are they giving back to you or are they taking from you?

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Yes. So beautiful. Tracy, I thank you so much for being on the show today and for sharing your story and sharing your insights. You know, what a powerful interview. Thank you. I appreciate you. And that is it for us for today. Now you know why I'm such a big fan of Tracy. Uh, how can I not be in hope? And I'm sure that you are now too. So go check her out and take a look at her work. And maybe in this interview today, there's something that you'd like to share with another person. We are so grateful for your time. We're so grateful for you. We are so grateful for you listening to us. And let us all work together to make this a little bit easier by sharing the wisdom that each one of us has. And with that, I say goodbye and until next time. That's it for this episode of the Business Growth Architect Show, Founders of the Future. If you're done playing small and ready to build the future on your terms, subscribe, share, and help us reach more trailblazers like you. And if you're serious about creating, growing, and scaling a business that's aligned with who you are, schedule your uncovery session at uncoverysession.com. Lead with vision. Move with purpose. Create your future.