Today we’d like to introduce you to Catryce Sutson.
Hi Catryce, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Long before I was a business growth strategist, I was the girl juggling everything.
In high school, I was running varsity cross country and track, singing in choir, working sound tech for jazz choir, doing community service, part of AVID and College Success Foundation, and taking College in the High School courses through the University of Washington. My schedule was full, but it was intentional. And I loved mapping it out in my Happy Planner.
I was also the girl my peers came to when they needed help aligning their class schedules with their career goals. I wrote my ex’s college admissions essay. My U.S. history notes were passed around before exams. I even took someone’s Washington State history course for them. I’ve always been wired to see the big picture, organize the details, and help people execute.
In college, I planned to become a high school Family and Consumer Sciences teacher — I genuinely thought I’d be teaching sex ed. A couple year in when the pandemic began, I started building an online presence as an influencer. What I didn’t realize then was that I wasn’t just building an audience. I was studying visibility.
Outside of school, I got my first job at 18. Within two months, I was managing shift scheduling. By 19, I was building a swim lesson program from scratch and scaling it to six figures in its first six months. That experience taught me how to build infrastructure, lead teams, and create systems that could sustain growth.
In 2021, photographers began asking if I could help manage their Instagram accounts. That was the turning point. I stepped behind the scenes of female-founded businesses and started seeing the real patterns. Over the years, I’ve worn a lot of hats in the online space — life coach, Instagram manager, course builder, creative director, virtual assistant, graphic designer, systems builder, launch strategist. Each role sharpened a different skill set. Messaging. Operations. Offer design. Execution. Leadership.
And in December 2025, I started using the title business growth strategist, because it reflected the full scope of what I’ve been doing while wearing so many different hats.
Today, I help service-based female founders scale their income and impact without being glued to their laptops. My work connects visibility, client experience, and operational infrastructure so growth becomes predictable instead of reactive. I focus on building businesses that can actually hold the ambition behind them.
Looking back, I’ve always been the person who maps the path, builds the structure, and helps others move forward with clarity.
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?
Does anyone ever really have a smooth road?
Even the people who are handed opportunities still have to build trust. No one is just handing over their credit card information without belief. Entrepreneurship requires earning that belief — over and over again.
So no, it hasn’t been smooth.
I started building my career online in 2020 when I was 20 years old. Your twenties are already a formative season — you’re figuring out who you are and where you fit. Developmental psychology even outlines this stage as identity formation. Now layer entrepreneurship on top of that, and you’re not just building a business — you’re building yourself at the same time.
In 2022, I was terminated from my 9-to-5. From May to September — maybe even into October — I made almost nothing in my business. Maybe $200 total. It was one of the quietest, most confronting seasons of my career.
Time freedom sounds glamorous until you’re sitting in it without structure. No one talks about that part. When you go full-time in entrepreneurship, your calendar is wide open — and that openness can either create expansion or self-doubt. I had to learn how to build rhythm without external accountability. That was harder than I expected.
Revenue inconsistency was one of the toughest lessons. I’ve always believed in investing in growth — paying for tools like HoneyBook, paying for coaching, paying to be in rooms where I could learn. I’m a lifelong learner, and I was raised in a system that teaches you education is the pathway to opportunity. So investing in my business made sense to me. But there’s a difference between believing in “pay to play” and emotionally navigating what it feels like when the return isn’t immediate.
I invested in rooms that weren’t aligned. I said yes to things because they sounded right on paper. Some of those decisions sharpened me. Others stretched me financially in ways that forced me to grow up quickly.
Age is just a number — but life experience matters. Building a business in your early twenties means you’re developing discernment, confidence, and identity in real time, publicly. That has been both a blessing and a curse.
There are moments where I question myself, but I don’t throw in the towel, and cannot imagine doing so, because that would mean going back to 9-5 life — and I don’t think I would thrive there anymore.
What I’ve come to realize is that every hard season pointed to the same truth: when things felt unstable, the issue wasn’t effort. It was structure. And oftentimes, my ambition was outpacing my infrastructure.
Learning to close that gap has changed everything. And now it’s the work I help other founders do before they hit the same wall.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Hold My Mimosa is what I call a brand expansion agency.
You probably haven’t heard that term before — I coined it because I couldn’t find language that fully captured what I actually do.
I originally started as an Instagram manager. And what I kept seeing over and over again was founders hiring me as a Hail Mary. Their revenue felt inconsistent. Leads were unpredictable. And they assumed the problem was Instagram.
Sometimes there were tweaks to make. But most of the time, the real issue wasn’t content, it was: onboarding, positioning, unclear offers, backend systems (or the lack thereof), messaging, and so many other things.
That’s when I realized the gap wasn’t social media. It was fragmentation.
Founders were being told to hire a web designer, then a copywriter, then a systems expert, then a marketing strategist. Sometimes those people talked to each other. Often, they didn’t. And the founder became the translator — trying to connect strategy across vendors while also running the business.
It was inefficient. It was expensive. And it was exhausting.
So in 2024, I formally launched Hold My Mimosa as a brand expansion agency — a centralized ecosystem where strategy and implementation live under the same roof.
At the center of Hold My Mimosa is Green Light Society, my consulting membership. It’s where founders receive ongoing strategic direction around revenue, positioning, marketing, and operations. But what makes it different is that it isn’t siloed expertise.
Inside Green Light Society, members don’t just work with me. They also gain access to aligned experts like brand strategist Samantha Fackler, systems strategists Tia and Jamie of The Wonder Brew, email strategist Breanna Owen of Owen Your Mark, and copy support from Lucy Bedewi at My Right Hand Woman. Instead of hiring five separate people and hoping they align, founders step into a coordinated environment where the strategy is cohesive and the specialists are working in collaboration.
And when clarity turns into “okay, now who’s actually going to execute this?” — that’s where The Tab comes in.
The Tab is our project-based execution layer — and it was actually inspired by legal retainers.
When I was looking for a lawyer, I loved the simplicity of how retainers worked. You pay one lump sum, and then you draw from it as services are needed. When the balance runs low, you refill it. It felt clean and simple.
I kept thinking, why doesn’t this exist in the online service space?
So I built it.
Instead of hiring someone for one rigid package and then having awkward conversations halfway through when you realize you need more, founders can open a tab. Messaging updates, backend cleanup, funnel adjustments, launch builds — they request support as needed, and we pull from their balance.
It removes friction.
Because what I’ve learned is that expansion stalls when logistics get messy. Founders don’t need more complexity — they need smoother execution.
Ultimately, I think what sets Hold My Mimosa apart is alignment.
Strategy, specialists, and execution all work from the same blueprint. Founders aren’t bouncing between disconnected advice and vendors — they’re building inside a coordinated ecosystem designed for expansion.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I think one of the biggest mistakes people make when looking for a mentor is chasing status over alignment.
It’s easy to be impressed by a TEDx talk, a big revenue claim, or a large audience. But social media is a highlight reel. I’ve had experiences where what was presented online didn’t fully reflect what was happening behind the scenes. And I don’t think it’s always a case of deception and dishonesty, but more just remembering that visibility isn’t the same thing as operational health.
At the same time, I don’t think you should rely solely on “how someone makes you feel.” Inspiration is great, but discernment is better. Look for clarity. Look for structure. Look for whether their business actually functions well — not just whether it looks successful.
Another piece of advice that’s often overlooked: start general before you go specific.
Before investing heavily in niche specialists, spend time understanding your own business. Dink around. Test things. Figure out what you like, what you don’t like, how you operate, and where you’re actually stuck. A strong general business mentor or coach can be incredibly helpful early on because they help you see patterns.
Then, once you understand your gaps, you can invest more strategically in specialists — systems, branding, funnels, copy, whatever you truly need.
I also believe in taking breaks between investments. Not every season needs a new program. Sometimes the most valuable growth happens in implementation. It’s easy to stay in learning mode. It’s harder — and more important — to execute what you’ve already been taught.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://holdmymimosa.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/catryce.sutson
- Facebook: https://www.threads.com/@catryce.sutson
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catrycethompson/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@catrycesutson
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@catryce.sutson
