Exploring Life & Business with Hayden Van Hulzen of HVH Media & Marketing + Twenty One North

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hayden Van Hulzen. 

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and had a very sheltered childhood. 

My mother was a fear and ego-based parent, abusive, and impossible to please. She divorced my father when I was three and remarried to a man who never considered me one of his own children and treated me as such. 

I imagine that military school would have made my mother’s parenting seem like a cakewalk. I remember crying in the rain at the bus stop one day because I was afraid to come home and tell my mother that I had received a C on an advanced mathematics test. 

I had two step-siblings and a half-brother who were all my stepfather’s children, so I was consistently the outcast and they never let me forget it. 

My mother allowed my step-father and his entire family to treat me like the outcast and when my inquisitive young mind wanted to understand why I was made to feel afraid or ashamed for asking. 

It was no surprise that I worked tirelessly to please her and always came up short. No matter how many varsity sports I played, no matter how many Honors and AP courses I aced, no matter how many accolades that I received from the Dean, no matter how many hours that I volunteered with the local special needs chapter, and no matter how many awards that I received in a variety of courses, it was never good enough. 

At some point, something inside of me evolved under the pressure of her expectations and it birthed someone miraculous even though I didn’t know at the time just how miraculous I would become. 

Pressure makes diamonds and I was hardening and waiting for my time to sparkle. 

Once I began to realize that my mother wasn’t ever going to give me her approval (because what she wanted was control), I stopped feeding into her fear-based egotistical parenting and freed myself of the shackles of her expectations. 

Unfortunately, we accept the love that we think we deserve, so I soon went on to pick a partner that mimicked a lot of these qualities and although the entire relationship was not bad, there were some major foundational pieces that would never be strong enough to support the person I was meant to become. 

All of these painful periods in my life were the pressure I was going to need to transform. 

I was one of those people who found comfort in a salary, sameness, consistency, and absolutely no risk. I had crippling anxiety, a small scope of the world, and people around me that prayed on my naïveté. It was during my divorce that I lost my job in a tragic way. My boss and my assistant died suddenly in a plane crash on the way to one of our events. The people internally who I had considered my friends, quickly turned on me and I was forced out. 

I was getting divorced, I lost my friends, I lost my job, and I was at the lowest point in my life. For the first time ever, I asked my mother for some support, she used this time to degrade me and end our relationship. We haven’t spoken since. 

In this moment I was lucky to have my father give me the little bit of aid that he could, but I knew it wouldn’t be a permanent solution, I was going to have to change my life myself. 

My son, was relying on me. 

So, I went out and found a new job. I found a great position at an international cosmetics company that needed a young and innovative mind to put their brand on the map. So, I worked my butt off. 

I put our brand in the room with some of the most influential people in the world. By day I was a rockstar CMO and in my evenings I worked to dig myself out of the debt left over from my divorce. In my evenings, I built another stream of revenue for myself through my own influence. I used my platform to start conversations about my process of climbing out from this pit of despair. 

I didn’t sugarcoat what my life was and I wanted people to see my metamorphosis live. I wanted to live out loud as a way of staying accountable, inspiring others who were going through a similar situation, and to use this audience that I was curating to create a brand that I could monetize. 

I continued to work my butt off for two and a half years and it was then that I knew it was time for me to take the ultimate leap. It was in this moment that the universe conspired to deliver me some much-needed “belief in me” at a time that I didn’t even know that I needed it. 

The origin of this “belief” was the magic that I needed to take one of the scariest leaps that I’ve taken; I bet on myself. I launched my business, HVH Media & Marketing, that year. In the first year of business, I greatly exceeded my revenue projections. 

Then COVID hit. 

I helped to pivot my clients into e-commerce and virtual marketing tactics. Because of this quick thinking, my business played an instrumental role in helping many businesses and brands to survive the hardest parts of COVID. 

I took another risk and partnered with PR Powerhouse, Christina Elmen, and we launched Twenty One North. It also exceeded my revenue projections in the first year. 

We have now graced the cover of Entrepreneurial magazines as innovators in our space and we represent clients internationally. I have quite a bit more room to grow, but I love to look back on where I was just 4 years ago and pleasantly smile at where I am now. 

It is possible. Believe in yourself! 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Anyone who says that road to success is paved is lying. Struggles and failure are a part of success. Any person that you see succeeding, is standing on a pile of fails, smiling, because they finally got it right. 

As an entrepreneur, each day will present new challenges and as you overcome one obstacle, a new one will present itself. We are defined by how we handle and overcome these obstacles, even more than we are by our visible success. It’s the struggles that got us there and built our character. 

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
HVH Media & Marketing is a full-service modern marketing agency tailoring unique customizable solutions that deliver accelerated measurable results. 

At HVH Media & Marketing, we believe in the power of ideas. We are based in Scottsdale, but we work with clients worldwide. We thrive on making a difference to brands and helping companies make powerful audience connections. We specialize in social media marketing, influencer marketing, public relations, website development, brand development, search engine optimization, digital marketing, and events. 

Twenty One North is a digital consulting agency, a division of HVH Media & Marketing & The Mae Agency, created by Christina Elmen & Hayden Van Hulzen with offices in Scottsdale & Los Angeles. 

Twenty One North focuses mainly on authenticity, bringing the most effective form of communication & elevating clients’ brands by increasing visibility & driving awareness. 

The Twenty One North team brings skill, passion, and dedication to its projects. Members of the team pride themselves on being a boutique agency that can provide a high level of personalization & deliver accelerated measurable results. 

To the Twenty One North team, the public relations & social media marketing industry is a lifestyle that goes beyond regular working hours. Each team member works alongside clients & their brands as though they were their own. 

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
The COVID-19 Crisis really weeded out the “fad marketers”. It wasn’t enough to be a linear strategist during COVID, many of us had to pivot in ways that we had never imagined before. We had to get scrappy and innovative because people’s livelihoods were relying on it. 

That kind of pressure is not for the weak. I truly appreciated all of the clients who leaned on us and put their faith in us during a terrifying and uncertain time. I was so proud of our agencies for being able to deliver. 

Contact Info:

• Email: hayden@hvhmarketing.com
• Website: https://www.hvhmarketing.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/hvhmarketing
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hvhmarketing
• Other: https://www.twentyonenorth.co/ 

Image Credits
The Digital Eclectic
The HVH Media & Marketing Team