Ep. 53 Amy Hilliard: Marketing Genius Showing Others How to Sizzle After 60
Amy S. Hilliard is the owner of three businesses: consulting, speaking and licensing. As principal of The Hilliard Group, a strategic marketing consulting firm, her clients have included Nielsen, IBM, BET, American Express, HBO, the Art Institute of Chicago, Jaguar and PepsiCo.
At 48 years old, because banks wouldn’t give her a loan, Ms. Hilliard sold her home to start The ComfortCake Company®, makers of “Pound Cake so Good it feels like a Hug®“. The Company commercialized Ms. Hilliard’s own recipes for a variety of pound cakes, and now licenses them and Sugarless Sweetness®, a patent-pending proprietary sugar substitute. Launched in 2001, the company gained national distribution with United Airlines, Walmart and Home Shopping Network among others.
A proven thought leader on entrepreneurship, empowerment and marketing, Ms. Hilliard speaks to audiences worldwide.
With a unique background of senior corporate experience and established entrepreneurship, Ms. Hilliard was recently President of Fashion Fair Cosmetics, the global legacy cosmetics company focused on women of color. She rebuilt the sales, marketing and operations teams, enhanced the brand’s imagery, increased promotions and focused the e-commerce efforts of the business to deliver the highest annual sales revenues ever for that channel.
During Ms. Hilliard’s tenure, Essence Magazine named her as one of the nation’s key beauty industry influencers. Ms. Hilliard was also the former Senior VP of Marketing for L’Oreal’s Soft Sheen division, and launched two multi-million dollar brands in one year for the division.
A former retailing, senior marketing and acquisitions executive with Bloomingdale’s, Gillette, Pillsbury and Burrell ommunications, Amy Hilliard successfully raised two young adults through college as a single mother. Her branding and marketing skills building the White Rain franchise into a $100 million dollar business have been documented in a case study for the Darden School of Business of the University of Virginia.
A native Detroiter, she is an honors graduate of both Howard University and the Harvard Business School. Amy Hilliard and her sister, Gloria Mayfield Banks are the only two African-American sisters to have graduated from HBS in its entire history.
She is the author of “TAP INTO YOUR JUICE — Find Your Gifts, Lose Your Fears and Build Your Dreams” – a motivational E-book endorsed by First Lady Michelle Obama, and “Mother Wit” for the NY Times bestseller, Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul.
Ms. Hilliard’s latest project, Sizzling After 60 – Thriving at Every Stage of Your Life – a blog focusing on Health, Wellness and Spirituality as the foundation for success launched this year.
For more info on Amy Hilliard
visit
http://www.amyshilliard.com
http://www.sizzlingafter60.com
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