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Holly Willoughby
Happy Birthday WYLDE MOON! Following reaching our first birthday (yes, of course there was cake!) Holly shares what she’s learnt along the way.
1. “I’m grateful”
“Looking back at the last year it feels like it’s gone so fast! We have done an awful lot – from creating our (borrowed from) The Wild perfume and home fragrance collection, which I am really proud of, to building a website. We’ve met incredible and inspirational WYLDE Women, collaborated with the English National Opera – as well as growing a wonderful community with you on social media and with our newsletters. We even won a prestigious award from The Fragrance Foundation in our first year. There’s a lot to celebrate and be grateful for. I feel like we’re exactly where we should be a year in, and are all a little bit wiser. Personally, I feel more in sync with myself but there’s definitely still a long way to go.”
2. “Now is the time…”
“It’s no coincidence that I was in my 40’s when WYLDE MOON came along. I had a bit more time, I had more confidence in myself, more understanding and I was beginning to ask questions of myself. When you’re younger you’re asking questions of the world and everything is very much focused outwards – what you’re achieving and where you’re going. Then you get to the point where you start to look inwards.
WYLDE MOON helps me understand and discover an awful lot about myself – the things I like and am interested in, that inspire me and I’m passionate about. I had a need within me to create something and share it with other people. I hoped it might inspire others along the way too. It’s continually evolving. From the first seed of the idea, to how it looked when we launched, to what it is today, WYLDE MOON has changed so much. “
3. “I’ve tried to do more of the things I love…”
“I wasn’t scared. I knew for some people some of the things we spoke about would come as a surprise because people like to have you figured out and pigeon-holed. WYLDE MOON is very much my inner-self; a passion project of all those things that make my heart sing. Things like meditation, crystals and breath work. The more I did those things, the more it bought me back to who I am. This isn’t going to be for everybody, it’s just me sharing with you the things that work for me and my life.”
4. “It’s great being creative…”
“I’m really enjoying creating things, whether its products or the layout of the website and the imagery. It takes me back to school where my favourite subject was art and design. I don’t do anything like that now but I was drawn to it as a child so I think it’s really there in me.
One of the most incredible moments was at the English National Opera where we launched our (borrowed from) The Wild perfume. I worked with Ride/GLOK/ex-Oasis music genius, Andy Bell, who created a reworked aria from La bohéme, called (borrowed from) The Wild, for the ENO orchestra and opera singers to perform. It was just magical.”
5. “I’ve had to become a business woman…”
“It’s funny, I guess people do see WYLDE MOON as a business and therefore me as a business woman, but for me it’s so much more than that, and calling it a business doesn’t feel personal enough. Whilst it is a business, emotionally it’s far greater than that.
This is all very new to me and one of the hardest things was realising that the buck stops with me! It’s not like you can say, ‘oh, I’ll ask them and if they sign it off we’re good to go.’ Every decision is on my shoulders and to begin with that was scary because I didn’t want to make a mistake. What I love is that it forces you to trust your instincts and really listen to that gut feeling of what’s right. All my decisions are based on ‘do I believe in this?’, ‘is this a true representation of myself?’, ‘is this something I feel will benefit others?’ When I do that, suddenly there’s more clarity so it’s less scary, and the more you do it, the more you rely on yourself and the more confident you become.”
6. “I’m always learning…”
“This has been such an opportunity to learn and grow, for me and the other girls who are within WYLDE MOON. I can see we are all on such a steep learning curve and we’re all really enjoying it. Where there’s an opportunity for growth and learning, you can’t regret. There’s something really powerful that happens when a group of women come together and become very aligned. Everyone brings their individual strengths, everyone is heard and I think that kind of working environment breeds creativity and people flourish.
The best advice I’ve ever been given is that if you’re doing something where you’re not trying to be someone, or something else, and if what you’re doing is totally you, and totally true, then it can’t be wrong. I really like that.”
Holly Willoughby
7. “I’ve discovered what I’m capable of…”
“People ask how do I find the time to put into WYLDE MOON and the answer lies in not trying to grow it too quickly. There was a temptation to go bigger, but because of my TV work, being a mother to my three children, the dog, the cat and the fact that I like to have a social life and see my friends, I had to make sure that it didn’t run away or get too big for me to oversee and have a complete handle on. I didn’t want WYLDE MOON to get to the point where I was having to rely on other people to keep it going. It’s about being realistic of how much I’m capable of.”
8. “I’m looking to the future”
“I’d like WYLDE MOON to continue to grow and to inspire women and men. I’m also learning so much from you, our extended WYLDE Family. I love that two-way relationship, that’s really important to me. Watch this space and see what’s to come in our next chapter and let me know what you would like to see more of. There’s a lot of uncertainty and change going on out there. Don’t forget to come home to yourself. You are your own constant…ground and find sanctuary in that space. ”
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