Female Founders: Hayden Merryn Van Hulzen of HVH Media & Marketing On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Good people with good work ethic are increasingly harder to find. Value the people that help support your vision and success, however they feel most valued.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Hayden Merryn Van Hulzen.
After working in marketing for over a decade on the national and global scale in some of the most competitive industries including: automotive, sports, and cosmetics HVH Media & Marketing was born.
She has worked with and developed campaigns with some of the world’s largest influencers, played an instrumental role in evolving several start-up companies into seven figure businesses within the first six months, developed a cosmetics brand for Amazon beauty, and collectively garnered over a billion campaign content views.
Her passion is her business, her role as a mother, and empowering other women to invest in themselves and their dreams!
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
In my first year of college, I was pre-med. I was the girl who took Algebra II in 8th grade, and Calculus for fun multiple times. I was an overachiever who overachieved and I thrived on it. But what’s funny is, I had a brain built for science and math and was on a path to wanting to become a Doctor until I took one look at my Organic Chemistry class and thought, “Nope.”
I had electively been taking PR, Advertising, and Communications classes and was absolutely obsessed with the idea that someone out in the world was making money crafting someone’s persona, designing their logo, and controlling why some of the greatest brands in the world were great.
I completely switched directions to a “joke degree” as my mother and step-father would call it, to which I now say “who’s laughing now”. There is so much money to be made in this world and it is such a blast. For creative minds who appreciate the power and possibility associated with this career path, it’s one that I would recommend.
After graduating from DePaul University in Chicago with a degree in PR, Communications, and Marketing and relocating to Scottsdale, AZ I began working in the marketing industry. I quickly propelled myself into managerial, Director, and C-level roles with an unparalleled work ethic and a unique approach to the industry. After almost a decade mastering my craft, I branched out on my own and began HVH Media & Marketing.
It was within my own company that I truly fell in love with being a female founder.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
I’ve always found these questions very limiting. It’s impossible to pinpoint one specific story when every day is truly an adventure as an entrepreneur. When every day is uncapped with potential, you never know what could happen.
I’ve had days that I’ve met Kim Kardashian, or been invited to events with some of the most influential people in the world; and I have also had days where I suffered with the crippling fear of what the COVID pandemic could do to my business (my baby) and all of the incredible clients that had put their faith in me during a hard time.
But that’s what makes business so invigorating! It’s tempering the highs and navigating the lows.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I haven’t had too many funny mistakes, so instead I will share my biggest mistake. When I was first getting started the biggest mistake that I made was being far too trusting in business. I learned some hard and valuable lessons about the importance of protecting the interests of my business and that having a good heart in business would not mean that everyone would reflect that same code of ethics back to me.
It was a hard lesson to learn, but a necessary one.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I had one specific mentor who I credit with being the first person to truly see the “magic” in me. He convinced me to leap into the unknown of entrepreneurship, and he was right about me.
Even at a time where everyone else closest to me (including my own father) tried to convince me to stay in the comfort of my C-level position, he was the one to tell me that I was destined for more.
He was and continues to be an incredibly accomplished person in his field and having his faith in my capabilities was what I needed to truly believe in myself.
Since then, my husband, Darien Bonney, has been the most foundational piece of my success. He is my greatest cheerleader, an asset in every possible way, and someone who still gives me room to do it myself!
After three years of hard work, I’ve even turned my father into a believer that I was always destined to lead.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
For the exact same reasons my father told me to keep my comfortable job; restrictive societal norms and fear.
My father and I have often reflected on this moment; it was not his lack of belief in me, but more his fear for success as a woman leading a business, built on my own funds, and opting out of the comfort of a steady paycheck for the unknowns of entrepreneurship.
Statistically speaking, he wasn’t wrong to fear for the “what if she fails?” and “how could she come back from this?”
The problem is, society does not coach women on how to lead, they coach women on how to follow.
There are so many negative connotations surrounding women in power that not only do we have to navigate the hardships of being a founder but we have to do it alongside the grueling emotional and mental anguish of being verbally ridiculed along the way.
As a woman, working to gain trust and respect in business is completely different than a man in the same role. Women have to walk this tightrope of expectation so that we don’t fall into an area that is too “unlikable” or too “emotional” and it’s exhausting, but necessary in our current societal landscape.
Behaviors that are applauded and respected in men are met with distaste or distrust in women. This forces women to have to find a professional gray area that achieves a similar result but through a multitude of different methods.
Entrepreneurship is intimidating enough, so when you tell the next generation of possible FemFounders, that they will have to navigate the unknowns of entrepreneurship AND play the mental mind games of trying to make it in a male dominated world, it’s enough to break even the most feminist spirits.
We need to start coaching the next generation away from traditional roles so that women can have an easier time being respected for their accomplishments and not constantly working against the societal norms and mores surrounding gender.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
As a society we need to stop grooming women in tradition. We also need to stop masculinizing business so that it isn’t so taboo for a woman to feel comfortable to lead.
This can be done in a plethora of ways but this thought process has to be adopted on a mass scale. When I travel outside of my business bubble where I have earned my place, I am often met with a lot of confusion and skepticism from the general populace about my accomplishments and capabilities. This is the ignorance that we need to reshape in order for women to only have to hurdle these obstacles instead of make the daily Mt. Everest climbs over them.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
We need more women founders to pave paths for other women. Someone needs to be brave enough to make the mistakes and draw the blueprint to help advocate for others to do the same.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
I think the most common “myth” about being a founder is this idea that entrepreneurship is this glamorous “work whenever you feel like it” life.
This is the celebratory final stage after grueling years of sleepless nights, deep struggles, a culmination of failures, and an absolute push to the brink of your character and sanity.
Entrepreneurship is not for everyone and that is perfectly okay, but we need to start showcasing the struggles attached to being a founder so that people can understand the true work that goes into it so that they can decide if they are willing to put in the hours to get to the final glamorized stage.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
It’s funny that I already started to answer this in my previous question, but the answer is no.
If you find comfort in sameness, if you are risk averse, if you hate to struggle, if you love your weekends and holidays, and if you can’t fathom trying to get somewhere with no map, then entrepreneurship is not for you. It is perfectly okay to have an employee mindset, just not in a founder role. Success is different for everyone, but for me, I thrive in the uncertainty of entrepreneurship, it is one of the most invigorating feelings in the world.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- I wish they told me how hard it would be to wake up on day one and realize that an entrepreneur in your initial moments kind of feels like “unemployed”. Depending on the business you create, there is a period of time where money is going out, you don’t have any money coming in. This can be a paralyzing moment where most people give up. The uncertainty and open-endedness is what you make it, for an entrepreneur, it’s invigorating.
- Don’t be afraid to outgrow people unapologetically. Business is about growth not stagnancy.
- Set boundaries. A lack of boundaries invites a lack of respect.
- Don’t be naive, rely on legal support. Not everyone is going to have the same code of ethics as you, make sure you protect yourself.
- Good people with good work ethic are increasingly harder to find. Value the people that help support your vision and success, however they feel most valued.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I am big on the “pay it forward”. As I continue to succeed I make sure to pay it forward to those who were in my previous position. I put a lot of money into charities that align with my visions, other women who are in the infancy of their business ventures, and the women who choose to believe and support my vision.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
In some ways, on a micro-scale, I have in my own way. I have built my own influence on social media by being a genuine person who showcased my rags to riches story in an out loud and vulnerable way. I have also not let the process change me at my core. I think a lot of women who are in transitional periods, have looked to me for guidance because I showed them just how possible anything is if you create a plan and go after it!
I think the movement I would work to inspire is to dismantle societal norms and mores by being a living example of a girl with a sleeve of tattoos, abandoned by her mother, who just six years ago was a part-time $20/hour marketing employee; who now owns two agencies that are thriving. If I can do it, those who want to, can do it too!
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Elon Musk, I just want to bask in the ambiance of his greatness on an energetic level and Whitney Wolfe-Herd because she is just an all around humble badass who deserves a high-five from every woman she has paved a path for, and I am one of them.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this
Female Founders: Hayden Merryn Van Hulzen of HVH Media & Marketing On The Five Things You Need To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.