We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Philly Cottrell. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Philly below.

Philly, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

The initial thought started with my 3 brothers in 2006-07. We wanted to a create an organization that could protect and help its community. Originally it was Hit Em Hard as time evolved, we evolved to Helping Encourage Hope. After going through life, I acquired partners from businesses and networking, which helped mold the organization. I didn’t end up revamping the organization until 2016 and it still was unstable. That was when I acquired our first professional contract for marketing. The marketing concept came from my degree in college I wanted to take the brand from more than just our community and expand to all communities who lacked protection and resources. I had to figure out business and other avenues to target market my audience to help communities. It took me actually going door to door to present my clients products and setting up kiosk in stores to present their products in real time every avenue of marketing I attacked for my clients. After 2016 I kept acquiring contracts and honing my skills. Then 2022 came that’s when everything came together. I never put the time in to legitimize my business. I helped so many other companies and communities I never took the time to help my own. I decided to create a business dedicated to helping the people. I incorporated everything I learned from marketing every product and applied it to a platform to assist business owner to connect with customers. In turn it took my recent contract to rebrand and relaunch officially. I teamed up with banks, credit unions and private lenders to help my network have the resources to provide every facet of business. I went from limited resources to all, Helping encourage hope is becoming a well-rounded brand that has everything for everyone. It took 16 years to launch.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

An athlete that had to brand myself which helped me create a business to help others brand themselves. I played college football in North Carolina, California, and Oklahoma. I then went on to transition to Arena Football where I learned more business about getting sponsored and representing myself. In college I majored in Marketing therefor everything synced together. Business transition from sports I met a lot of business owner and some I helped increase revenue by word of mouth. I always had a brand, but it wasn’t until recently I realized it could be monetized on another level. I help business owners marketing there products. Im most proud of helping my last dealership $50k in a month.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Doing the bare minimum. Some were taught pay the least on you credit card payments. Pay the minimum on your car note, or Work out 3 times a week that’s enough. If you only do the minimum you get minimum results. I made it this far by doing more, you want more you have to do more.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

One of my initial clients had informed me of using their business as an asset for my business. I’ve never been big on credit and leveraging my credit. I was always taught credit cards were bad. In turn I also never made many deposits I was taught keep cash. Therefore, my deposits for a bank to verify were futile. I had all this cash but no paper trail to show it. It was a process of 6 months. Buckling down and doing the necessary to help my business. I did other contract work to save up to eventually apply for business funding.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: heh_inc
• Facebook: Phil Cottrell
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-cottrell-11757b113/
• Youtube: Speechless moments