Why You REALLY Can’t Trust The Hollis Company After Rachel Hollis & Dave Hollis Divorce was Shared
Why You CAN'T Trust the Hollis Company After Rachel Hollis & Dave Hollis Divorce Was Announced
I never thought I’d be commenting about someone else’s divorce online. It’s none of our business……except that they literally made it their business. Why you REALLY CAN’T trust “The Hollis Company” After Rachel Hollis and Dave Hollis divorce was announced on June 8th.
I Don't Think It's Bad That Rachel Hollis and Dave Hollis are Getting Divorced. I Think It's Bad They Profited Off Their "Healthy" Marriage When It Wasn't.
This couple made money off their marriage advice on the podcast Rise Together and their Rise Together weekend conferences (which cost couples thousands of dollars per ticket). Would you pay for a marriage conference ran by someone you knew would be divorced in a few months? Probably not, which is why there was no sense of stress or negativity in their relationship whatsoever. The intro for their podcast makes sure to mention that they have been married for 15 years and have “a thousand kids.” There is no “hey we’re really struggling,” only personal growth strategies told in the context of marriage that never made much sense.
They've Left Out Key Information Before
While Rachel was proud to tout all of the hard work she put into building her company, she failed to openly acknowledge how her husband’s job allowed her to do so. Rachel was able to hire a nanny full time so she could “work as an intern without pay.” Many women would LOVE to enter a new field but could not afford to LOSE money to work (by hiring a nanny). Yet she talks about “reaching out for help,” without saying that they hired a nanny.
Did Rachel Ever Announce Her Taking Back the "CEO" Title?
I happened to click into Rachel’s profile because a picture was on my “explore” page. And I noticed that her bio listed her as CEO. Which is interesting because it was a big deal that Dave was hired as CEO last year. I tried looking through the past several posts on her and Dave’s profile as to when the switch happened, but it doesn’t appear to be addressed. That was actually when I questioned their marriage. I realized they didn’t seem to be together as much, and Dave had come off very egotistical in his social media presence.
Their Relationship Was Toxic to Begin With
The level of toxicity that was described in Girl, Wash Your Face (GWYF) was baaaaad. And yet, Rachel shares that this man is her husband. And we’re supposed to just go “Awwww” over it? No way! I remember being shocked.
The Name Change to The Hollis Company Seemed Sucspicious
Dave Hollis was an executive at Disney. One of the biggest media companies in the world. You don’t hold a job like that without some serious business acumen. I have the deep suspicion that there have been trouble in the waters ever since the decision to change the name to The Hollis Company. Why? Because if Rachel, the primary face of this company, ever left….the “Hollis” name would still be attached to the company. Not her. I have no clue what her maiden name is, so should she choose to return to that, it would be hard for all of her customers/followers to convert to that name. The tens of millions of copies of that book say Rachel Hollis. So even if there was a name update, those people would only have that name.
The Plagiarism Still Hasn't Stopped
I stopped following Rachel Hollis on Instagram back around the time her and Dave did the Start Today Morning Show on Instagram (side note, whenever that stopped might be a key breaking point in their relationship…). The specific time was when Rachel Hollis recommended reading the book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. This was while she was writing Girl, Stop Apologizing. And what showed up in “GSA” ? Duhigg’s work, except without crediting him that work. The comparison was absolutely undeniable, and she gave no credit. Then I realized this has always been a problem. It’s criticized in Girl Wash Your Face, her conferences, social media, absolutely everything. She has stolen so much work, it’s horrifying. So while that was the original straw that did it for me, I hope that realizing their marriage was a money-maker for them and nothing else, that its your time to see through. If anyone currently has a ticket to the next Rise Together conference, I hope you get a refund.
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Hi, my name is Rachel Smith. I’m a personal finance nerd, Aldi connoissuer, book lover, yoga enthusiast, and budgeting wiz. I was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska but currently call Michigan home. I want to help people with their finances and eating healthy on a tight budget (no matter what your cost-of-living area is!)
Couldn’t agree more with everything stated here. I was so disgusted about the announcement since they’ve made so much money emphasizing their healthy marriage. I requested a full refund for their Rise Run and they gave it to me. Thankfully! I wish them well but have literally lost all respect for the whole company. There are way too many issues like you mentioned… not anyone I want to accept personal development advice from.
Glad you were able to get a refund! Yea I certainly do hope the best in their personal lives and their family, but as for their company I hope people see how deceitful they’ve been for years. Wishing you the best! -Rachel (ironic name here, I know lol)
Wow, I thought I was the only one to see that reverse of the CEO charge to Rachel, I was looking through Dave’s Linkedin and it seems he was CEO for the HoCo until December 2019. What a shock, as you correctly pointed out Dave becoming CEO was something really important for Rachel and the company. She talked about it in many interviews, but it was easy to see that she was not happy with the change, in the podcast of Lewis Howes she said that her ego was so big and she did not want to gave the CEO position to Dave because “she has built” that company alone. In that interview there are a lot of red flags, I think that was the time when I stopped to follw them, she said that Dave was invited to a fishing date with others influencer in the coaching area and they call and say Hi Rachel we are going to be reunited is your husband available to join us? And she got really angry, she explained how she went throught it, but she does not seem very convincing about it. She even told that she did not like when people start to ask Dave to sign her books, because she has written them. I can understand that part but from someone who has plagiarized many content, Come on!
Here an abstract of the memo from Rachel when she hired Dave as CEO: ( It seems she forget about this statement)
https://msrachelhollis.com/2018/05/31/the-hollis-company/
A New Leader: The biggest part of this transition for me both personally and professionally was the choice to “hire” Dave into the CEO role. I founded my company 14 years ago and I have been so proud of my CEO status, particularly when so few women hold that title in the media industry. It took a massive (and I do mean massive) amount of prayer and consideration to make this choice rather than go with a Co-CEO title. My reasons for the decision where 1. It is absolutely untenable for me to keep going at the rate I’m going. For 14 years I’ve been the one running the business and I also am the business. Does that make sense? I am the one running meetings and overseeing P&L’s and approving hires and approving the lease on office space. Simultaneously I am the one casting the vision, writing the posts, speaking on stages, writing the books, posing in the photos etc. I’m pretty freaking proud of the fact that I’ve been able to operate at such high capacity for so long but I recognize that if I want to scale the business I cannot continue to do both simultaneously. I knew this was true but I also REALLY struggled with the idea of giving up what I had worked so hard to achieve. Then my sweet friend Christy told me to make a list of everything I loved to do at my job and it turns out, NONE of the things on my list were CEO related. Ha! What a miracle! I had no idea. I care deeply about the content, the visuals, the customers, the message and the experience we create for our tribe. I do not care at all about finances, hiring, budgets, processes, procedures and a million other details. Turns out, the only thing standing between me and my dream job was my own pride. My new title? Chief Creative Officer! Basically, I’m in charge of everything fun and beautiful and I only have to pay attention to the functional components of the business at a top line level instead of day-to-day operations. Huzzah! 2. My husband just left a job at Walt Disney Studios after 17 years. He was the president of worldwide distribution. If he was going anywhere else on the planet he wouldn’t even consider a job that wasn’t CEO and frankly, I wanted to be respectful of what he has earned in his career. 3. I am really blessed to have several friends who work with their partner and every single one that I spoke to told me that the biggest issues they’d faced in their business partnership always boiled down to pride. Ultimately I want to grow this business into what I know it can be and doing what’s best for the business means getting out of my own way. I’m going to do what I do best (dream up cool things) and Dave is going to do what he does best (lead a team to scale a company) and it’s going to be incredible. I’m sure we’ll be socially conscious billionaires by next Wednesday at the latest.
Exactly! You hit the nail on the head here. And many companies share when a CEO position changes so it was certainly odd when they didn’t talk about the switch back. -Rachel
I thought I was the only one. After her first book, to me she came off as desperately trying to hold on to something that seemed already gone with her marriage. Dave always seemed awful and she always defended him, but it never sat well with me. They were in it for $$.
Hello, thank you for sharing. While I won’t comment on their relationship, I can certainly agree that they used their relationship for the money. -Rachel
I find your write up interesting. I am wondering if you have read her books? If you have you would realize that within them she discusses her bad marriage and how the two of them worked to make things work. That doesn’t mean that the marriage would have lasted or should have lasted. I have never been under a false pretense that their marriage was the best and was successful. If you paid attention to their morning show you would have seen that. I guess for a person who is divorced from a marriage that started off great and ended so horrible I do understand why the divorce is happening and can see the signs. As for whether or not they announced the change in the CEO and who this person is is another interesting item but I to be honest does it really matter? There are 1000’s of businesses that we all work or deal with that make changes all the time that are not announced to the public. Does it really needed to be announced to the public? Where you surprised that a divorce was announced because I know I wasn’t.
I have read her books. I own GWYF and borrowed GSA from the library. While I do have my own thoughts about their marriage on their socials, I’d like to keep the commentary strictly to the business standpoints. Their morning show was not a direct sale, only a lead-in for other sales on things like the Start Today Journal, announcing launches etc. It’s pretty common for CEO changes to be announced in the form of either a press release or social media, and since they made SUCH a big deal about his role as CEO I do think it’s important (again, from the business side). I was personally not surprised that a divorce was announced, but I was also not surprised to see how many people WERE surprised. And that to me is the underlying issue. The “surprise/shock” of thousands of followers proves how they portrayed themselves and is why I wrote this post. I’m currently in the process of writing a follow-up so do stick around for that! Hope that gives some insight, and thanks for sharing your thoughts. -Rachel
I find it intriguing that the previous comment is praising the books but never acknowledged your comment about Rachel Hollis plagiarism of the books. That is very telling of her clawing her way to the status she has and what she will do to get there. All of these subtle and not so subtle business tactics were always questionable to me, and her tone in the books also made me have several knee jerk reactions to her choices in which she would wrap them up in a nice bow to make everything look fine. because lest we forget this book is being sold as an empowerment book.
Yep. I think a Business Ethics course would be an excellent place to start.
A healthy marriage is one where people can be authentic with each other, and where you seek counsel when you need help. These two work together, and have 4 children together. They have a BIG life. Sometimes having a healthy marriage means you need to know when to let it end. She did share about her marriage, both the good and the bad. She never pretended it was perfect. Living life under a microscope is hard on top of all the other things on their plates. I say let’s not judge them.
I do not judge their divorce. I judge their choice to make millions of dollars by promoting their marriage as healthy when it was not. The amount of *shock* shown by many shows the depths of this deception. I wish them the best in their personal life, but I believe that the Hollis Company should allow refunds for anyone who attended Rise Together conferences. -Rachel