We were lucky to catch up with Holland Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Holland, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I’d say risk-taking is my specialty. I used to think I wanted to take the path I saw everyone around me taking, but I’ve always struggled to keep myself confined to just one thing. When I graduated college I thought I had everything mapped out. I wanted to work a corporate job and be “normal.” So that’s exactly what I did. I remember sitting at my desk at my corporate recruiting job one day and thinking to myself, “Is this it? Is this all that I will ever be?” Now don’t get me wrong, I think some people absolutely thrive in a corporate setting and truly feel that they have a purpose in those roles. I just knew it wasn’t my purpose. I am not the type to stay in something that’s making me miserable. At the same time, I hate the feeling of instability. Even though I knew I needed to take a big jump to find my purpose, it wasn’t easy.

I have always had a passion for health and wellness. It’s always been something that I can talk about easily. Something that lights a spark in me when someone asks me a question about it. While I was at my corporate job I would spend all day working with my air pods in listening to podcasts about starting your own business or monetizing your social media.
During this time I promised myself I would take the leap and start heavily focusing on monetizing my social media. The hardest part was letting go of what others would think about me. It wasn’t easy. People suck online. Sometimes you get more support from random strangers than your own friends.

I decided to quit my job after months of feeling like my soul was dying for lack of a better explanation haha. I told myself I wanted to become a cycling instructor and focus heavily on monetizing my social media in the health and wellness field. I had absolutely zero experience in fitness but I knew I was obsessed with spin classes. I had graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, but I knew I wanted to become a health and wellness professional. If there’s one thing about me I know for sure, it’s that when I set my mind to something I will figure out a way to make it happen. It might not happen right away, but I will find a way to make it happen.

Two months after I quit my full-time job + picked up a part-time retail job for some extra income the COVID pandemic hit. Now I was completely jobless and had all the time in the world to focus on what I wanted to do. A blessing and a curse. During the lockdown, I decided to focus on my social media and becoming a certified health and wellness coach. There was really no way for me to focus on teaching spin because leaving the house was barely an option. I finished my health coach certification towards the end of lockdown and grew my Instagram by about 3,000 + followers.

As the pandemic began to wind I decided that I would treat social media as my full-time job and that every other job I picked up I would treat as my part-time job. This has been hard to explain to the people in my life because I think it just sounds too outrageous. I don’t have an insane amount of followers yet, but I still make income off of my platform monthly. Sometimes it’s more money than I made working my retail job. The more time I dedicate to it the more money I make. Simple as that.

Whenever people ask what I do for a living I always just say “everything!” Currently, I manage my own socials, I manage a few other small businesses’ social media as a freelance side gig, I’m a certified health and wellness coach under my own LLC Holland Like the Country, and I teach spin classes at The Madison Improvement Club. All of the risk-taking was worth the career I’ve built and will continue to build.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

To put it simply, risk-taking fueled by my passion for health and wellness is what got me to where I am currently. I struggled with health problems of my own for my entire adolescence. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at age 2, celiac disease at age 5, and Hashimoto’s hypothyroid at age 22. I always had a passion for diving deeper into my health and what was causing my problems. I had always struggled with a bad relationship between food and exercise. I wanted more than anything to change that. Becoming a certified health coach completely changed the way I thought about mind and body wellness. The way you fuel your body has a huge impact on your overall health. It’s so much more complex than just finding a pill to solve your problem

Finding forms of exercise that I loved like spin changed my relationship with my body and exercise. I wanted to be an instructor and create a safe space for people who felt like they weren’t capable of achieving their goals. I wanted to shift their mindset. Any time someone walks into my class it’s a safe space. I space where your possibilities are limitless. A place where even on the days you can’t give 100% you can still be proud simply because you took the time to show up for yourself. It’s so hard to give yourself credit when you’re constantly comparing yourself to others. We do that every day. Especially with social media and the internet. In my classes, this is you chance to let that go. For 45 minutes I want you to envision all that is possible and go that extra mile that you didn’t think you were capable of. So much of the fitness industry is focused solely on aesthetics. I strive to make my classes go beyond that. Wellness is so much more than how your body looks!

I have implemented all of these principles into my social media brand. My social media channels (Tik Tok and Instagram) I strive to make my social media channels a safe space, especially for women. A place where we can all connect, share recipes, travels, wellness/lifestyle tips, and learn from eachother. I share free information and recipes with everyone in my network. I share knowledge from my health coaching and fitness career and strive to make sure my socials are an uplifting place for everyone. My brand is wellness in all aspects of life. Wellness doesn’t have to be complicated. Simplicity is key and I’m here to teach that. Wellness doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Wellness doesn’t have to look the same for everyone!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn what success looked like. My entire life teachers. family members, friends, and the media have been defining what success should look like for me. The greatest lesson I’ve learned is that I am the only one who should define what success should look like and feel like for me. I was never the best in school, I never knew what career I wanted, and I never thought that what I wanted was within my reach.

I still struggle with imposter syndrome every day. I occasionally just feel like I am not cut out for being my own boss. I find myself getting lost in comparing myself to people around me and their careers. Sometimes I feel like I can’t compare. My advice is to feel the fear and do it anyway! You are in the driver’s seat. You decide where to go. There is no one else like you. Bring what you have to the table. Don’t be like everyone else in your field. People want different; show them something new. Don’t let that fear win!

We grow up seeing certain pictures of success. It’s hard to see outside those narrow windows of what success should look like. Were never told that there are different brain types or different learning styles. We’re told if we get A’s in school we will be successful. Were told to go after careers that will make money. Not careers that will bring us joy. I was never told that I would do my best when I was doing something I loved. There’s one picture of success and when you step outside that people judge. When you step outside that it’s completely terrifying. Am I exactly where I want to be in my career yet? No, but I am glad I have given myself the chance to define what success looks like for me. I’m done letting what other people think about me define my life or what I choose to do with it. If you set your mind to something you can do it. It might not be easy and it may take you years. Keep going, keep pushing, and do what you have to do to get there. You deserve that.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Becoming a cycling instructor was quite the journey. I faced plenty of rejection before I actually got my job. I also faced imposter syndrome. I never thought I looked the part so I limited myself and spent so much time fearing that I wouldn’t ever be cut out to be in the fitness industry. Indoor cycling has so many different moving parts. It’s truly more than just being a fitness instructor.

I sent in an application at the studio I wanted to work at and naturally got a rejection email. I had no experience or rapport other than being an avid rider. The rejection made me want to quit and never look back. But there was a tiny part of me that was hanging on. After a few days of thinking I sent an email back asking the hiring manager what I needed to do to get a job. Thankfully he was incredibly helpful and responded back with tips and things he was looking for in an instructor. Although I had felt pretty defeated I put everything he told me to do into action and eventually landed my role as an instructor at the Madison almost exactly a year later. Don’t get me wrong, I worked my ass off to get the job. It didn’t happen overnight. Good things take time. Put in the work, find every possible way to elevate yourself, and don’t be like everyone else. You have something to offer, you just have to believe it.

Contact Info:

• Website: hollandlikethecountry.com
• Instagram: @hollandlikethe_country-
• Linkedin: Holland Smith
• Other: Spotify: Holland Scattergood-Smith Tik tok: Holland Scattergood

Image Credits
Lacie Photography Madison Fedt