I connect Brands, Software Houses & Ecommerce Vendors | Community Builder & International Expansion Specialist within E-commerce| Content Specialist| Podcast Host | LinkedIn Creator| Go To Market| Check My Bio 4+

I work at the intersection of international commerce, governance, and ecosystem strategy.

For more than 15 years, I have operated across Europe, Latin America, The Middle East working with companies expanding across markets, building go-to-market strategies, structuring partnerships, and navigating growth in complex, multi-country environments. 

My work has consistently focused on one question: how organisations scale internationally without losing clarity, credibility, or trust.

I am based in Denmark and work globally with founders, executives, board members, and investors involved in growth, transformation, and market entry.

I am the Founder of EVOLVE, a private platform connecting board members, senior advisors, and fractional leaders to growth companies in commerce. EVOLVE operates across 48+ markets and is designed for senior professionals who increasingly work through advisory roles, board positions, fractional leadership, and selective operating mandates.

EVOLVE is built for depth.It prioritises trust, continuity, and long-term relationships at the governance and decision-making level.

I work best with senior leaders, PE-backed and growth-stage companies, family offices, and investors focused on international expansion, partnerships, ecosystem strategy, and long-term positioning.

If that is your context, we should talk.


Keywords

Board members

Senior advisors

Fractional leadership

Growth companies

Private platform

International expansion

Governance

PE-backed

Family offices

Ecosystem strategy

Carlos Monteiro

Media, Trust & Monetization with Alessandro De Zanche and David Alves 

What a great session

Founder, EVOLVE | Connecting boards, senior advisors, and fractional leaders to growth companies in commerce

This week at EVOLVE we had a sharp conversation with Alessandro De Zanche and Davi Alves about media, commerce, and why so many transformation efforts fail.


Content is not the problem.
Technology is not the problem.

Incentives are.

media businesses, creators, platforms, even retailers acting like media companies are structurally misaligned. Leadership often understands what needs to change, but organisations still reward short-term optimisation over long-term coherence.

AI only accelerates that reality. It doesn’t fix it.

If you’re a CEO navigating transformation, or a senior leader stepping into board or advisory work, this is the kind of discussion we have in our club.

check our newsletter this week.

the link is in my linkedin bio

EVOLVE is a trusted circle built on connection.

Here’s what Bradley Lane shared about his experience.

Our partners and members don’t come for visibility.
They come for the people behind the work.

Yes, they represent strong brands.
What matters more is who they are in the room.

When you partner with EVOLVE or join the private club,
this is the circle you associate with.

#evolve

"For me EVOLVE is all about connection"
Bradley Lane 

Bradley is one of our founding members

We have over 500 senior members 
Spanning 48 markets

Check what Bradley Lane has to say about it

#evolve

I believe the companies of the future are building their media capabilities today.

To build a media capability, you don’t need much.

One phone.
A point of view.
And the courage to share it without hiding behind vanilla content.

Honestly, there’s nothing particularly special about what I post here.

What is special about EVOLVE are the people who say yYES to joining our weekly conversations.

That comes with responsibility.

If someone agrees to join an expert session, it’s on me to do my best to  amplify their thinking properly. That part is hard.

I have to think carefully about the topics we explore and the questions I ask.
Most of the time, I don’t even feel capable enough to have a deep dialogue alone.That’s also in part why I invite other experts to the room.

People with complementary perspectives who can elevate the conversation beyond what I could do on my own. That’s how EVOLVE is built.

And this connects directly to what we discussed in today’s expert session.
The conversation wasn’t really about media.
It was about responsibility.

If you accept that media, commerce, and marketplaces now overlap, then building a media capability is no longer optional. 

It’s how ideas travel. 
It’s how trust is built. 
It’s how context is created before a transaction exists.

That’s why non-media companies are being forced to think like media companies.
Not to chase attention, but to earn it.

The same applies to EVOLVE.

If I’m asking senior leaders to show up, share their thinking, and expose 

their experience, then I owe them a space that’s thoughtful, prepared, and worth their time.

Media, in this sense, is not content.
It’s intent, curation, and respect for the people involved.

Romania is no longer an underdog.

Great conversation at the Netopia Summit on how competition, talent, and global attention are reshaping the market.

Many thanks to NETOPIA Payments, Marius Costin, Horia Grozea, Mihaela Constantinescu and team for creating the space, and to Ionut Grossuț for the sharp, grounded perspective.

This is what market maturity looks like.

These are the kinds of conversations we host at EVOLVE.
Daily.
Straight from operators.

Across 48 markets.
#evolve

Romania is no longer an underdog market.

Eight years ago, it had strong technical talent but limited external pressure. 

Today, that has shifted. Chinese players are active and highly competitive. Regional players, particularly from Poland, are paying attention. 

The entry of platforms like Trendyol didn’t just add scale, it altered market dynamics.

This is what happens when a market crosses a threshold.

Digital is becoming harder and more expensive. 
Choice has expanded. 
Brands now have alternatives. 

Consultants are no longer scarce. 
Senior and fractional expertise is available, visible, and comparable. 

As a result, everyone is forced to improve.

That was the underlying message we took from a conversation with Ionut Grossuț EVOLVE Chapter Leader in Romania, during the Netopia Summit.

Competition is no longer a future risk. It is the present condition. 
And that is healthy. It signals relevance. It also removes excuses.

In this context, communities matter differently. 
Not as networking clubs, but as places where experienced operators compare notes, shorten learning curves, and build context across markets.

That is the role EVOLVE plays. 
Connecting senior talent, companies, and markets at the moment when execution matters more than potential.

Many thanks to the NETOPIA Payments team for creating the space for these conversations, and to Marius Costin, Horia Grozea, Mihaela Constantinescu, and the wider team for the partnership and trust.

Attention has arrived. 
What happens next depends on how seriously we learn from each other.

If you are a senior operator, advisor, or company navigating this phase, EVOLVE is always open for the conversation

What is the most common illusion founders maintain about their readiness for scale or exit?

In today's expert session we bring someone very experienced with a sucessful exit, Andre Abi Awad, my co-host, Jean Mies, Board Member, senior advisor, EVOLVE club member and former president of Adyen in LATAM will be joining me to discuss:

what actually determines optionality for founders once ambition meets reality. 

We will explore how businesses quietly lose leverage long before exits are discussed, why preparation for growth often creates fragility instead of resilience, and how identity, decision-making, and governance shape outcomes far more than headline metrics. The focus is not on success stories, but on the structural and human dynamics that tend to surface only when pressure arrives.

Interested in joining us?

Sign up on Luma

https://luma.com/e694008w

You can join the EVOLVE crew, and understand more about the calibre of our club by joining us on Airmeet, our incredible partner in this journey and the best platform out there enabling global, vitual and hybrid events 

#evolve

Open article: EVOLVE Expert Session #94 - Andre Abi Awad · Luma by luma.com

EVOLVE Expert Session #94 - Andre Abi Awad · Luma

What is the most common illusion founders maintain about their readiness for scale or exit?

In today's expert session we bring someone very experienced with a sucessful exit, Andre Abi Awad, my co-host, Jean Christian Mies, Board Member, and  senior advisor, EVOLVE club member and former president of Adyen in LATAM will be joining and Hendrik Laubscher me to discuss:

what actually determines optionality for founders once ambition meets reality.

We will explore how businesses quietly lose leverage long before exits are discussed, why preparation for growth often creates fragility instead of resilience, and how identity, decision-making, and governance shape outcomes far more than headline metrics. The focus is not on success stories, but on the structural and human dynamics that tend to surface only when pressure arrives.

Founder of For Digital Sakes | The Agency for Hospitality | Ultra Lux Hospitality 🌎 | Podcast host: The Digital Concierge by FDS🎙️ | Driving Direct Bookings with Grand Walkthrough Tours | Human 1st Perspective always ✨

We build digital worlds that turn viewers into guests.

I work with luxury hotels, destinations, and travel brands to bridge the gap between the physical guest experience and the digital world where guests discover, decide, and return.

At For Digital Sakes, we design seamless digital journeys that reflect how a place actually feels, ensuring nothing is lost between the hotel and the screen. Our work focuses on confidence, clarity, and long-term value, not campaigns.

With 14+ years working brand-side across hospitality, luxury, and global consumer brands, I bring deep insight into how guests think, choose, and commit long before arrival. That experience spans 50+ brands, from global leaders to emerging technology businesses.

Today, as the Co Founder and Creative Strategist of For Digital Sakes my work sits at the intersection of brand clarity, guest-led digital strategy, modular storytelling and AI-ready digital infrastructure. Everything we build is designed to support discovery, booking and belonging before, during and long after the stay.

I explore how hospitality is discovered, understood and chosen in a digital-first world, with a focus on AI discoverability, guest journeys, and building digital worlds designed to last.

If you are building or stewarding a hospitality brand and care deeply about how it is discovered, chosen, and experienced long before arrival, we may be a good fit.

🌍 Work and case studies: www.fordigitalsakes.com
📅 Explore alignment: https://calendly.com/hollyfordigitalsakes/30min?month=2026-01
✉️ Holly@fordigitalsakes.com

Holly Phillips

Louis Vuitton is opening a hotel in Paris.

You may or may not have heard. 
But

No it's not a pop-up.
No it's not a collaboration.
It's a fully branded hotel.

Which is expected to opening thiiiiis year on the Champs-Élysées. 


This isn’t a hospitality move.
It’s a brand move.


For years, luxury brands expanded sideways:
cafés, exhibitions, temporary experiences.


Louis Vuitton just expanded vertically.


A hotel gives them what no product ever can:
• Total control of the environment
• Time spent with the brand, not seconds
• Service as storytelling
• Memory as the final luxury


LVMH already knows hospitality through Cheval Blanc, Belmond, Bvlgari.

This time, they’re putting the core Louis Vuitton name on the door.

That’s the signal.

Luxury isn’t about ownership anymore.
It’s about immersion.
About owning the full end to end experience. 


The real question isn’t why a hotel?

It’s which brand is brave enough to follow?

Which luxury brand would you actually trust with a hotel stay?

Founder of For Digital Sakes | The Agency for Hospitality | Cinematic Grand Tours & Digital Toolkits that Drive Direct Bookings | Podcast Host: The Digital Concierge 🎙️ | Human-Led Always ✨

Louis Vuitton Opens a hotel in Paris 

The White Lotus Season 4 location has been confirmed.

And for the first time, it’s not a Four Seasons.

Season 4 will take place on the French Riviera, with filming centred around Saint-Tropez reportedly at Château de la Messardière.

That’s a notable shift.

Previous seasons turned Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts properties into global cultural landmarks:
• Maui
• Taormina
• Koh Samui

This time, HBO is betting on place first, not brand first.

Why you should care about this: 

• Confirms the Riviera as the next global luxury spotlight
• Signals a move away from automatic “big-brand” association
• Reinforces how entertainment now drives destination demand faster than traditional tourism marketing

We can expect:
– A surge in Saint-Tropez searches
– Increased demand beyond peak summer
– Copycat positioning across Riviera properties

The ripple effects will show up in bookings long before the season airs.

Worth watching closely.

P.S: I don't know about you but season 2 was my favourite!

White Lotus News 

This Week in Luxury Hospitality 👇

A curated snapshot to help you keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening across luxury hospitality, spanning hotels, destinations, design, and guest experience.


News of the Week:
Cromlix House, owned by Andy Murray, is undergoing a major renovation and expansion.

The refresh includes a new fine-dining restaurant with a living roof, additional guest rooms, and a dedicated wellness cottage. Reopening May 2026, it reflects how heritage hotels are investing in longevity, landscape, and depth of experience.

Hotel of the Week
The Vineta Hotel (Oetker Collection KG)
The Oetker Collection makes its U.S. debut with this Palm Beach icon. A discreet, family-owned approach meets ultra-luxury boutique hospitality, reinforcing Palm Beach’s position as a global luxury destination.

Destination of the Week:
Comporta
Designers, creatives, and discreet high-net-worth travelers continue to gravitate here. Unspoiled beaches, rice fields, and understated architecture define a quieter European luxury, rooted in privacy, sustainability, and barefoot elegance.

Experience of the Week:
Private Aviation × Luxury Hotels
The arrival is now part of the experience. Seamless access to private jet terminals, heliports, and choreographed welcome rituals remove friction and reinforce privacy, exclusivity, and personalization.

Book of the Week:
Chocolates on the Pillow Aren’t Enough by Jonathan Mark Tisch
A grounded, insider look at what truly elevates guest experience, focused on consistency, detail, and thoughtful innovation rather than surface-level theatrics.

Trend of the Week:
Wellness-Focused & Neuro-Aesthetic Design
Signal-free lounges, calming palettes, natural materials, and acoustic design are becoming essentials. Luxury is increasingly about creating environments that restore the nervous system and support emotional wellbeing.


The common thread?

Luxury that feels considered, intentional, and quietly confident.

What’s caught your attention this week that we missed?

What's on our radar - what's hot in hospitality

Luxury shouldn’t fragment its brand.
But it must fragment its narratives.

This is where nuance matters.

Luxury hospitality can’t go fully Red Bull.

Why?


Because luxury is built on:
Consistency
Control
Scarcity
Symbolic value


Fragment the brand too much and you dilute trust.

That’s why houses like Aman or Hermès stay tightly brand-first at the top.

The brand is the anchor.

But here’s the challenge:

Being brand-first has quietly turned into being brand-only.

One feed.

One tone.

One narrative.


For radically different guest mindsets.

This worked when I first worked in social media, many moons ago. When we could take the scatter gun affect across all channels for the Johnson and Johnson portfolio. 

But the space has changed. 
The consumer has changed. 
They want and expect more. 
And they are different across different channels. 

And that’s why brand-only content is failing to earn attention.


The winning model isn’t fragmentation.

It’s orchestration.
• One strong brand umbrella
• Multiple interest-led narratives
• Content that adapts to mindset, moment, and intent

Brand-first for trust.
Interest-first for attention.

Not:
“Let’s create more pages.”

But:
“Let’s speak different languages, without changing the logo.”


Because guests don’t choose luxury brands.

They choose the version of themselves those brands allow them to become.

So here’s the real question to end on:
Which interest deserves its own language, not its own logo?

social media interest

Yesterday I got on a call with a very well-seasoned developer and hotelier who had reached out to me on LinkedIn.

I went in expecting the usual opening:
What do you do?
Why should we hire you?

Instead, he opened with:
“Holly, what are your goals in life and how can I help you?”
I paused.

Not because I didn’t have an answer but because I realised how rarely we’re asked that question, in life let alone in business.

It completely shifted the dynamic.
 No pitching.
 No posturing.
 No credentials-first conversation.

Just direction.


That one question revealed a lot about how this gentleman thinks.
 
He wasn’t looking to buy a service.
 
He was looking for alignment.

For overlap between where he’s building and where I’m going.


It reminded me that the most meaningful partnerships don’t start with scope or deliverables.

They start with intent.

I’m genuinely grateful for people who want to connect in a deeper way.

In a more human way.

In an authentic way that extends beyond a business exchange and is rooted in shared life values, not just commercial ones.


Maybe “What do you do?” isn’t the most important question after all.

Maybe the better one is:

Where are you actually trying to go and who do you want alongside you?


I’m taking that question into more of my own conversations.
So I'm curious when was the last time someone asked you that and do you know how you would answer?

Q1 content strategy isn’t seasonal. It’s psychological.

Most hotels plan Q1 by month.
The smart ones plan it by mindset and then make moved based on that. 

Because Q1 isn’t about pushing volume.
It’s when travellers slow down, reassess and make higher-intent decisions.

In Q1, people:
 • rethink how they want to live ( I know I do)
 • reassess health, time, and meaning ( yep) 
 • plan the year ahead ( hello, sounds like me) 
 • book earlier and stay longer 

That’s why Q1 demand may be quieter, but it’s often more valuable.

The hotels that perform best in Q1 don’t post more.
They post with more intention.


January is about reset and control.
February is about connection and ritual.
March is about anticipation and forward planning.

Seasonality isn’t about dates or discounts.
It’s about how people think.


The real question for Q1 isn’t
 “What should we post?”
It’s “Which mindset are we speaking to?” 

It's about meeting your potential guest where they are in moment and mindset. 

PS: We share this thinking through our quarterly drops via our newsletters, decoding the seasons so hotels can plan with clarity, not guesswork.

Who do you think has storytelling for Q1 nailed?

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The Battle

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taplio

The Battle

Carlos Monteiro

Holly Phillips

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Engagements

Likes

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