If Holly Curby has learned one thing in the last decade, it’s that she can decide how she responds to heartbreak and loss. She’s learned to keep standing in the face of adversity and wants to share that message with the world. 

Curby is a Sandy resident and author of the book, “Face-Lift: Embracing Hope through your Heartaches” which was published last April. When her mother was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2019, she told Curby to write a book about resilience. On the day her mother died, Curby promised her she’d get the book done. 

“My mother had encouraged me for years, with all the different heartaches and trials that I had persevered, that I needed to write a book,” she said. “It was about reminding myself to live, no matter what discouragement or whatever circumstances were happening, that there was good, and that there were so many blessings within the day.” 

Curby said her resilience practice started in 2012 when her marriage fell apart. As a single mom raising two children, she felt alone and discouraged. To make a tough situation worse, she got laid off from her job. 

In 2014, Curby’s mother was hospitalized after drinking iced tea that was accidentally mixed with lye at a local barbecue restaurant. Doctors didn’t think she’d survive, but she pulled through. Then, in 2015, Curby’s dad was diagnosed with multiple myeloma cancer, which is treatable but not curable. Add in a botched hip surgery Curby experienced and it seemed her life was one disaster after another.

Instead of spiraling in fear and grief, Curby turned to her social media platforms where she began posting uplifting and encouraging quotes. People started telling her how much those positive messages meant.

“We can wallow in self-pity, or we can look at the blessings and the goodness,” Curby said. “It’s also about having a support team around us. We often think we have to do everything alone to show that we can. It’s not a weakness to reach out and say I need help.”

Curby started a podcast, Holly’s Highlights, in 2020, offering advice to listeners who needed encouragement and direction to create a meaningful life, despite its challenges. Each month one of Curby’s podcasts is featured as a column in the City Journals, usually in Riverton, West Jordan or South Jordan. 

Along with being a podcast host, author, public speaker and coach, Curby is also the director of culture and community for Chick-fil-A. But she said her favorite job is being a mom to her daughter who plays soccer at Alta High, and her son in middle school. 

Her book has won several awards including the Feathered Quill and Illuminations Awards for Self-Help. It also received an honorable mention at the Los Angeles Hollywood Book Festival.

Curby said writing the book didn’t change her, but it encouraged her to develop and retain a mindset of resilience, kindness and connection.

“Even on some of our roughest days, we can be reminded there’s still hope, and whatever is happening, we can, as the title says, lift our face to be encouraged,” she said. “Whatever we go through in life, we can be vulnerable in bringing to light our fears and our failures or our passions. We can truly humble ourselves and use our path, not to define us, but rather to see the hope that is within us and to create a future that looks different because it is so good.”

For more information about Curby, or to find her book, visit HollyCurby.com. λ