Holly B.
President at Selle Impact Consulting
Consumer Goods
Education: UNC-Greensboro - Appalachian State University
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Biography
Holly is an organizational strategist bringing three decades of innovation in the natural and organic products industry and in nonprofit leadership to her passion for "business as a force for good." She is a fierce advocate for revolutionary company missions that empower equity for women and planet. Her dedication to women’s equity has included leading the Bellebuono School of Herbal Medicine (founded 2011); leading training events for organic business owners; speaking internationally for conferences and associations; serving as executive director for environmental, advocacy and education nonprofits; and publishing an award-winning documentary book celebrating women’s successes as entrepreneurs and thought leaders.
Holly has won two small business awards plus a nonprofit executive award and has authored 8 nonfiction books published in 3 languages. Holly holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration: Environmental Policy from Appalachian State University, and executive certificates in Nonprofit Finance, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and Impact Measurement & Management of the UN Sustainable Development Goals from Cornell, London Business School, and Duke University. She has served on the Martha’s Vineyard Climate Action Plan Steering Committee (Economic Resilience) and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center Community of Practice, among other committees. She is known for celebrating the human experience and as an inspiring key strategist, instructor, consultant, and speaker for business leaders seeking a worthy purpose.
Passion
Supporting certified B-corps and aspiring B-corps as they blend profits with passion and purpose. Supporting women find their strength through creativity and alignment. And sharing CREATIVE and out-of-the-box ways to grow and transform on your leadership journey.
I am willing to travel
More than 100 miles
When it comes to payments
I always get paid for speaking
Topics
Best Story
A whimsical story about change management, how leaders can support personal and professional growth and help their business grow and change... through tales and stories. The metaphor from the Celtic myth of Cerridwen is a fun and colorful way to visualize how important innovation is for a company and how leaders can access unusual imagery from literature to spark their business, adapt, and be flexible.
Origin Story
As a CPG (consumer packaged goods) creator, Holly struggled with the environmental consequences of packaging, the lack of authentic organic standards, and the social drawbacks of being a woman in a commercial sphere. She recognized the need for companies to strive toward a worthy purpose in addition to profit as she solopreneured through the 1990s and 2000s, decades that witnessed small and medium companies get crushed under the weight of a linear and destructive CPG model.
Holly took her rich personal and professional background in natural and organic products and ethics-based entrepreneurship, herbalism, and business development to found Selle Impact Consulting, where she guides businesses and nonprofits in leadership, strategic planning, purpose alignment, and creating the bold vision and values needed for positive environmental and social change.
Example talks
Descent & Resurrection: Navigating Personal and Professional Change
Fresh Insights into Leadership —from Holly’s New Book Once Upon a Place:
Forests, Caverns, & Other Places of Transformation in Myth, Fairy Tale and Film.
How do leaders grow? How do we navigate the seemingly insurmountable obstacles and challenges we face daily, both personally and professionally? It is not enough to claim the title CEO or "boss," in fact earning that title is a never-ending experience of growth that signals we are facing, head-on, the barriers and overcoming them in the best ways possible.
In this talk, author and award-winning entrepreneur Holly Bellebuono explores the broader context of the world’s traditions, inviting the reader into what she terms the “World Journey” to explore humanity’s most fascinating transformative symbols and what they mean for leaders. With downplayed wit and curiosity, she explores truly epic images from the dual concepts of Chaos and Void and The Beast and The Guide, to the colorfully mundane (such as common kitchen cups) and how these metaphors can teach us to thrive. How do YOU overcome challenges? Do you descend? And how do you rise?
Takeaways from this talk:
• Discover inspiring stories of transformation from around the world
• Identify events that you can relate with in your own journey, such as
divorce, losing a job, failing, or any hardship personally or professionally
• Discuss mentorship and the value of having a mentor in your life, or being a mentor for others
• What would a “thread” look like for you? Especially as a leader, how can you offer a thread to
someone else?
Best audiences:
leadership; achievement & purpose; inspiring personal stories; overcoming adversity; professional growth & success
Raising the Chocolate Bar: Business on Purpose
Does your business have a purpose? Do your team members know it? Can your customers see it? In this talk, Holly shares examples of purpose-driven companies, identifies a variety of commitments such as B-Corp and Certified Organic, and especially discusses why today’s business leaders should commit to social and environmental standards. Be inspired with stories about a wide variety of natural and organic product businesses who are changing the game. Holly explains that crafting a simple mission statement isn’t enough, and why implementing purpose throughout your company, large or small, should be a cornerstone of your business plan.
Key Takeaways:
• Get inspired to work with your team to develop a mission & strong purpose
• Learn how other companies are creatively pushing purpose boundaries
• Discover what Gen Z customers require for authenticity and transparency
• How to grow the excitement around creating a valuable purpose through your brand
Best Audiences: branding/marketing; growth & change; CEO/executive; corporate culture;
CSR; entrepreneurs; innovation; leadership; prof development; mission/vision/values;
women in business
How Organic, Natural Products & Clean Beauty Women Leaders Are Changing the World
The skincare, herbal, coffee/tea, and cosmetic businesses that shine thanks to strong, innovative women. Women leaders today have so many opportunities, and so many hurdles. In her 30 years launching, directing and selling natural product businesses, herbalist and award-winning entrepreneur Holly Bellebuono has seen the organics industry grow in positive ways, in part thanks to strong women. In this talk, she discusses big-picture ideas about how women are claiming their entrepreneurial identity in ways that benefit the Earth and society, and how feminism as a core business value will better our planet.
Key Takeaways:
Explore BOLD values such as feminism and women-centered leadership, equity and advancement
supports growth
• Understand how leaders can build purpose-driven company culture
• Learn how women can buck traditions and trends in powerful ways
• Learn how women can revolutionize corporate culture through women’s priorities in mission, vision and values.
Key audiences: CPG leaders; natural and organic product industry folks; branding/marketing, growth & change; CEO/executive; corporate culture; CSR; entrepreneurs; innovation; leadership; prof development; mission/vision/values; women in business