Women In Wellness: Hilary Coles of Hims & Hers On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Lean into your strengths until you are the best at them, instead of spending your time trying to make your weaknesses into your strengths. You don’t need to be good at everything, but you do need to understand what you don’t know and make a plan to address it.
As a part of my series about women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Hilary Coles.
Hilary Coles is co-founder and SVP of Brand & Innovation at Hims & Hers, a multi-specialty telehealth company that connects customers to licensed healthcare professionals, enabling them to access high quality medical care for numerous conditions related to primary care, mental health, sexual health, dermatology, and more. With a passion for creating impactful, thoughtful brands and a natural adeptness in product development, brand management, and marketing, Hilary has played a critical role in the fast growth and success of Hims & Hers. Prior to Hims & Hers Hilary worked at venture studio, Atomic, and managed marketing specifically for Ever.com, one of the top iOS productivity apps. In the past, she also led marketing and business development for True Patriot Love Foundation, a national, Toronto-based charity. Hilary is originally from Toronto, and holds a B.S. from the University of Toronto and a M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
My name is Hilary Coles, I’m the Co-Founder and SVP of Brand and Innovation at Hims & Hers. I grew up in Canada, which is where I received my undergraduate degree. When I graduated, I started working at a nonprofit that helped Canadian veterans and it was through this work that I became interested in business. I decided to get my master’s degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in America (which is where I reside today with my husband and soon-to-arrive baby). I co-founded Hims & Hers — a multi-speciality telehealth company — with its current CEO Andrew Dudum. Our business has helped millions of people access treatments for a broad range conditions, including those related to sexual health, hair loss, dermatology, mental health and primary care.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
Looking where I am now versus who I was and what I valued growing up is so amazing to me. When I was younger, I was always obsessed with physical products, specifically beauty products and packaging, and would pore over magazines and shelves just learning and absorbing. It’s always been something I’ve loved, and what’s so cool about it is that I’m truly living out what I had dreamed for myself as a kid, as it’s a key part of the innovation work I lead at Hims & Hers. My biggest learning from this is understanding that you really can do anything you set your mind to. It doesn’t matter what your passion is, but if you work hard and push through the hard stuff, your passion could become your career!
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
To this day I still have bouts of imposter syndrome, but I didn’t recognize it in myself when we were starting out as a company. At the beginning when we started lifting off and seeing success, it was incredibly exciting to realize people were finding our brand to be revolutionary when it came to health and wellness care. It was easy to get caught up in the excitement and start using other people’s advice and recommendations to act as your North Star, especially when you’re getting guidance from really confident and experienced business people, super smart agencies, and so on. When I should’ve been listening to myself and my close colleagues regarding next steps for the business, I sometimes followed what external people suggested to do and some of those decisions weren’t right. It all worked out in the end, but I learned to trust my instincts (even if advice is coming from someone you really admire). In the end, as a founder, you live it every day. You know your customers. You know what your mission is, what you want the future to look like, and you should be driving decisions yourself.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
Day in and day out, the people at Hims & Hers work to help people feel good by providingaccess to personalized health and wellness care. More than that though, we’re pursuing a social movement to destigmatize health issues and concerns, educate the masses, and ultimately empower people to be active — not intimidated — about addressing their health concerns. Instead of dreading the cold, sterile waiting room at a doctor’s office for example, we are shaking up what “healthcare” means by enabling people to feel good about taking care of themselves — this is what powers every decision we make as a company.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
While I’m not one of the amazing licensed medical or mental health experts people can access on the Hims & Hers platform… I do have some suggestions that have worked for me in terms of bettering myself and helping me to live a more present and active life.
- Put your phone down at least a half hour before you’re in bed. In fact, spend less time on your phone overall. Have to say this too — be cognizant about how much time you’re spending on social media… when you’re scrolling through your Instagram feed, sometimes 20 minutes go by — when that happens I am distracted and not present and it doesn’t make me feel good!!
- On a related note, get outside! Even if it’s just a five minute walk. Looking a further distance than the screens and walls in your household can do wonders for your outlook. Even if you only have time (or energy!) for a five minute walk, do it. You won’t regret it.
- Think about how much caffeine you consume… it’s so easy to just keep refreshing that coffee when you need a pick me up, especially when you feel like you’re slugging through the day! Cutting down on these have helped me sleep better and feel less anxious.
- Avoid what I call fear-based wellness. For example, if your workout really stresses you out, or you are spending more than you are comfortable with to get the latest skincare regimen… take a step back to prioritize your feelings. You want to create a safe space for yourself and when it comes to wellness, you can find ways to take care of yourself and heal without any negativity.
- Make sleep a priority. I used to only sleep six hours a night, but since I started to be super disciplined about consistently trying to get 8 hours it really has made a world of difference in terms of mental clarity and energy.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Women’s health is always top of mind for me and has been even more so with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Access to abortion and then contraception coverage for all women would be a result of the the movement of my current dreams.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
As you’ve probably gathered, I’ve learned a lot along the way as co-founder of a growing, public company. If I could turn back time, I wouldn’t change a thing. Sure, some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way were tough, but I’m a better leader because of them. Here’s my humble advice:
- The things that make you different are your superpowers. Don’t compare yourself to anyone or anything. Be unapologetically you (you’ve got this!).
- Don’t rush decisions. Often the more urgent something seems, the more it requires you to take a beat, step back, and think it through
- People are thinking about themselves more than they are spending time thinking about you.
- Lean into your strengths until you are the best at them, instead of spending your time trying to make your weaknesses into your strengths. You don’t need to be good at everything, but you do need to understand what you don’t know and make a plan to address it.
- Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. Is it getting you closer to your goal? If not, re-evaluate.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
Mental health — not only due to personal reasons, but because there is a mental health epidemic occurring right now. As a nation, we need to figure out a better way to help those in need of mental health care.
What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?
Keep an eye on what we’re doing at Hims & Hers by following our social channels! Instagram/TikTok: @hims @hers
Women In Wellness: Hilary Coles of Hims & Hers On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.