Holly Hurd always wanted to write a motivational book. But publishers told her she first needed a blog. So the Fairfield County resident created one in 2010, which now contains more than 500 stories about women leading fulfilling lives.
“They are mostly moms who left work to raise kids and run businesses,” said Hurd, adding that many give back by helping women struggling to run small businesses of their own. These include Genevieve Treacy, whose Vieve luxury resort brand spotlights the rich weaving traditions of the Wayuu women of Colombia’s La Guajira Peninsula.
From Las Vegas friends Dena Tripp and Debbie Shwetz, who created Nothing Bundt Cakes, which has franchises in Hartsdale, Port Chester and Stamford; to Rachel Antonoff (sister of Taylor Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff) and her bold, print clothing line; to Christina Livada’s Chappy Wraps blankets, Hurd has told stories of invention and reinvention that parallel her own journey from finance to real estate and motivational speaking and authorship.
She calls that motivational enterprise VentureMom – a platform about entrepreneurship and women’s empowerment that has led to her two books – “Venture Mom: From Idea to Income in Just 12 Weeks” and “The Life-Changing Power of One Question: Unlock Purpose, Direction & Connection With One Powerful Ask.” which was published last November by Maison Vero.
The VentureMom blog actually asks a lot of questions, everything from “What would VentureMom wear for a birthday lunch with friends in Florida?” (shop Maeve and Anthropologie); to “What is one habit that you’d like to take out of your life” (eating candy in the car; replace it with water); to the life-changing question “Now what?” (“Now what?” tells the story of the One Love Foundation, created to raise awareness of relationship abuse by the family of Yeardley Love, a University of Virginia student who died in 2010 at the hands of an abusive boyfriend.)
After raising children, taken care of parents and working, Hurd said, women also need to ask themselves, What do I want my life to look like now? The answer, she added, revolves around the three Ps:
People – “Right now the world has a serious epidemic of loneliness. Connect with other people as if your life depends on it, because it does.”
Purpose – “Something that gets you up in the morning – a job, a charity.” Hurd cites the example of former consumer marketing executive Kathy Giusti, a two-time cancer survivor and New Canaan resident ,who with her twin sister Karen Andrews, a Greenwich resident, founded the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, which has raised more than $600 million since 1998.
Pursuits – This could be walking, hiking, bridge – something, Hurd says, that gives you joy and perhaps leads to a new community like a knitting circle.
Hurd’s own purpose and pursuits began among the people of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she grew up Holliston Hill, daughter of commodities trader John Hill. At age 12, she was keeping charts for him. With a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management from what is now Simmons University in Boston, she traded on her own. Moving to New York City in 1985, she founded Holliston Hill CTA Inc., which she “blew out” two years later. In 1991, she became a partner in the eponymous Hill Financial Group Ltd., a hedge fund and Commodity Trading Adviser (CTA) that managed nearly $200 million at the peak.
In 2002, a large hedge fund acquired the company’s proprietary technology. BY then, Hurd had begun a real estate career with Houlihan Lawrence in Fairfield County and J Pepper Frazier in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
“Trading houses,” she said, “is much like commodities. It’s buying and selling at the best price.”
