Subscribe to my newsletter for thoughts on small business, work life and other work-adjacent topics I’m currently obsessing over.
About
Holly always knew she wanted to have her own business for the autonomy and independence it provided.
In her early 20s, she opened Golightly PR, a fashion focused communications agency. This served her desire to forge her own path in the fashion industry, working with creative founders as they built their brands.
Golightly built the profile of some of Australia’s best young brands such as camilla and marc, Dion Lee and Josh Goot. With time the agency moved into the online retail and high street space, launching ASOS and later, direct to consumer brands such as Allbirds, Everlane and Away into the Australian market. Other key clients included Levi’s, Ganni, UNIQLO and Karen Walker.
Recognising the changing nature of the communications landscape, in 2017 Golightly launched PEOPLE, representing people of influence, helping them develop their careers and connect with like-minded brands.
In the age of influence, Golightly focused on people with strong creative skill sets and helped them amplify their message. This included creatives such as cook Julia Busuttil Nishimura, baker Katherine Sabbath, graphic designer Jasmine Dowling, illustrator Barry Patenaude and nutritionist Brittany Darling.
After 15 years of operations, in 2020 Holly closed Golightly and stepped away from the all consuming nature of agency life to begin the next stage in her career. This progression consolidates the skills and experiences Holly had honed through working with over 50 brands at various points in their development, managing talent, mentoring staff and undergoing the shift in perspective brought on by having children. As part of this next stage, she realised a long held desire and commenced an Executive MBA of Entrepreneurship at the University of Technology, Sydney. Holly has long observed that work was an important driving force for so many people, but often filled with emotional and psychological challenges as well as major compromises.
Her area of interest became ‘how do we create unique models of work which can sustain and nourish each of us into the future?’
Too often she had seen people strive to build businesses that they ultimately did not enjoy, and give up far too much of life along the way. Holly had experienced the same dilemma herself. Now, her focus is on supporting others to build working lives that offer deep enjoyment and complement their greater lives, while she does the same.