Today we’d like to introduce you to Holly Reardon.
Hi Holly, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started as an aspiring writer, which led me to study film and video and then move to St. Louis for a media production internship. I worked on commercials and reality TV before landing my first full-time role in digital marketing, specifically social media. I loved the fast pace, the people, and the fact that every client brought a completely different challenge to uncover and solve.
At that agency, I started joining lunch-and-learns with the owner and became fascinated by how the business side worked. I eventually grew into a strategist and team leader. Then I moved in-house at a financial firm, where I learned how closely marketing and sales are connected, and how they contribute to business growth.
In 2021, I launched Hapacity Marketing because I missed the energy, collaboration, and variety of agency work. For five years, we’ve helped small and mid-sized businesses solve marketing problems across strategy and execution. More recently, I saw a gap I felt both inspired and equipped to fill, so my team and I rebuilt the business around it – and even created an app.
Today, Hapacity works with established marketing departments inside larger organizations (oftentimes, private equity-backed firms). We help teams align around strategy and priorities, improve how the work gets done, and create a healthier, more confident creative environment. I work most closely with the senior marketing leader, helping them carry less of the burden alone while giving their team clearer direction and stronger support. I love it!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, but not for the reasons people often assume. As your business grows, the stakes get higher. You have a team relying on you, clients counting on you, and your family depending on you. That kind of responsibility changes the way you approach decisions.
Right now, I’m in the middle of the biggest evolution of my business yet. I’ve spent months rebuilding Hapacity from the inside out – our offers, operating systems, technology, and client experience. Now comes the part that’s ironically the scariest: putting it out into the world.
I’ve never done this exact thing before, so it can feel daunting. I have a master’s degree in digital marketing, but marketing your own business feels very different than marketing someone else’s.
That’s one of the biggest lessons entrepreneurship has taught me. You can study business all day long, but there’s no substitute for actually building one. Most of what I’ve learned came from doing, adjusting, and doing it again. And again.
And honestly, I enjoy that pressure. I’m naturally competitive. And when the moment gets big, my mindset is usually, “Pass me the ball.” That’s where I do my best work.
As you know, we’re big fans of Hapacity Marketing. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Hapacity solves the hard, unglamorous problems inside marketing departments… The ones that quietly waste time, drain team energy, and weaken exec. trust in marketing.
I’ve seen the dysfunction from every angle: as the leader, the doer, and the agency partner. Campaigns launch before positioning is fully defined. Content gets produced constantly without a clear strategy. Creative feedback shifts from strategy to opinion. Too many initiatives compete for attention. Executives want faster launches, creative teams feel burnt out, and the senior marketing leader gets stuck carrying pressure from both sides.
That’s the gap we built the Hapacity Method™ to solve.
We don’t come in assuming we already know what a team needs or ask clients to “just trust us.” We start with an Audit that uses interviews, team input, and an assessment to identify where the real breakdowns are. Then, during the Sprint, we help the team fix what we found by installing frameworks and systems they can actually adopt. In the Partnership phase, we stay embedded as strategic creative directors to help maintain the progress and protect priorities.
When it works:
– marketing leaders make faster and more confident decisions
– teams save time and feel more engaged
– executives trust marketing more
– the organization is in a stronger position to invest and grow
We still have a soft spot for small and growing businesses, too. We also offer focused strategy projects for high-stakes moments like a website that no longer reflects the business, a new offer that needs sharper positioning, or a campaign with too much riding on it to wing the strategy.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Since I’m currently living as a nomad and moving every month, I don’t really have a “home city” right now. One of my favorite parts of this season has been experiencing different communities and discovering myself through it all.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hapacity.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/hapacitymarketing
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hapacity/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hapacity/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/HapacityMktg
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@hapacitymarketing
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@hapacitymarketing
