About Robin Holland
Everything I teach, I had to learn the long way.
When people come to me, they’re not usually lost — they’re simply out of tune with what’s true now.
The problem isn’t their branding, their strategy, or their productivity.
It’s that their inner signal has gotten buried under expectations.
I know this because I did it to myself for years.
I spent decades working in writing, strategy, design, leadership, and brand work — helping founders and emerging voices shape what they wanted to say. And while the work mattered, I could feel a subtle misalignment underneath it all, like the frequency wasn’t quite clean.
So I began tuning inward.
Listening for what rang true and what didn’t.
Letting clarity arise without force.
When the noise fell away, the work became unmistakably clear again —
not branding,
not coaching,
signal.
How I Work With You
I’m not here to give you a shiny new brand and send you on your way. I’m here to help you hear what’s true now and let that shape what you build next.
I bring decades of writing, strategy, design, leadership, and brand work — plus years of sitting with founders, artists, and creators as they navigate real-life decisions. I’m calm, honest, and allergic to performance.
Together, we listen for what has resonance and what doesn’t, then translate that into clear language, choices, and next steps.
A Little Backstory
I’ve spent my career in the spaces where creative vision and real-world constraints meet — translating between disciplines, and helping enterprises function without losing their soul.
I began in San Francisco advertising agencies (Y&R, FCB) in account management — the role that integrates creative, media, research, and business realities on behalf of the client. From there, I moved client-side to Fisher Mountainbikes and later into product marketing at LucasArts, working at the intersection of business and creative development.
That integrative point of view carried into Totally Games, which I co-founded with my husband, Larry. He led the company and game development; I was responsible for the business infrastructure — finance, operations, marketing execution, contracts, and team systems — building a functional, durable enterprise inside a volatile industry.
After that chapter, I turned toward coaching and advisory work, looking for ways to bring what I knew into service of other businesses. I experimented with branding and strategy as an entry point, but it was never the center. What people consistently came to me for was clarity, orientation, and the ability to see what was actually true and workable.
That work is now The Refinery — a place for thoughtful, capable founders and creators who are tired of posturing and hungry for truth. A place to realign what’s inside with what they’re building, and let work take shape from something solid.