Hot Olive Agency
I help brands leverage organic content on social media, email, and more.
Website metrics tell you who's dropping by
You remember when people used to just stop by because they were “in the neighborhood”? This is my childhood best friend, Joy. She’s one of those friends who’s always welcome to just come on by — whether we’ve got something on the calendar or not. Last time we had an impromptu hangout, she said this, and I couldn’t agree more: “Our generation has lost the recipes. We don't just drop by anymore.” And she has a point. Growing up, my incredibly Southern grandmother kept a cake at all times that...
Email metrics down? Time to clean your list...
My fiancé and I had 300+ people on the first draft of our wedding guest list. I know. We’re insane. It gets worse: two of those 300 were people we met once at another wedding. We thought they were cool, so… onto the list they went. No second thought. Just pure vibes. That’s exactly how a lot of people build their email lists. Every customer, coworker, business contact, and second cousin? Add 'em — the more the merrier, right? But then comes the quote from the caterer. You know what came next:...
Social media metrics live a double-life
Social Media Reporting: Organic vs. Paid Metrics Are Homographs Go back to school with me. Do you remember “homographs, homophones, and homonyms”? A homograph is a word spelled the same but with different meanings. Like: A "windy" road vs it's "windy" today. Both are spelled “wind” but the difference is the long/short vowel sound. Social media metrics are homographs... When reporting social media metrics, be clear which numbers you’re tracking: Organic or Paid. While some metrics have the...
Bad at math; great at data analysis
You know that scene in New Girl when Nick Miller says “I’m not confident I know how to read, I just memorized a lot of words.” I used to think that way about math. I wasn’t confident about what I was doing, I had just memorized which operation to do with which problems. My entire life, despite year-round tutoring, I couldn’t get higher than a C+. Then I went to college… I took “The Nature of Math” — it was billed as “the math class for kids who aren’t good at math with a great professor”, and...
Why people linger after events
This week, I am trying a new format of the newsletter. You'll find 2 new sections in this email. I'd love to know what you think - hit reply. The secret sauce of event marketing is the energy you bring. My favorite moment of a live event is in the after-hours magic. I’ve peeled off with “my people,” deep in conversation, lingering even after we’ve been kicked out of the space. That’s what makes in-person events different. That doesn’t happen in a webinar. That energy, the kind that makes...
They Didn’t Reject the Event—They Rejected the Name
Case Study: Kindred Speed Dating ➡️ Kindred Social What does it take to run a successful event? For my friend Derick, pounding the pavement, partnerships, and pleading worked…kinda. Derick is a co-founder of a new dating platform, Kindred Speed Dating. He is also THE most social person I know. Throughout the years, his friends have become my friends. He knows how to convince people to attend an event, then get them talking to strangers. (He accidentally started an unofficial pickleball...
How I went from Grade-A Idiot to Rockstar in 4 days
It was January 2022. I had just quit the full-time job that had hired me away from a job I loved with the allure of more money, a prestigious title, and the promise to build a team. After 4 months, I realized the title was just vanity, the team was out of the question, and my pay would likely never increase again. So I quit and went out on my own for the first time. I took any and every freelance gig. I called it my "funemployment" stage — if it sounded like fun, I said yes. I was a film...
Your content is probably missing this...
IDK about you, but my Instagram and Pinterest are filled with advice that feels more like noise. It tells me to create content that is educational, entertainment, or inspiring. That’s not very helpful. Because when you create content, you need to start from somewhere. It’s as if they forgot to say why we’re doing this in the first place, which is the most important part (imo). The point of creating content is to influence your business goals. Your goal might be to boost your personal brand or...
Buckle up - This one is on AI
Every search engine, software, and coffee maker seems to be AI-powered now. . . If you haven't jumped on the AI train I have good news for you: You're not too late Responsible AI means not using it ALL THE TIME or EVERYWHERE AI tools can be amazing and can level the playing field. But it feels like companies are blasting their great tools with AI features just so they're not left behind. It's annoying. It's part of the tech-space fear of "LEARN IT OR DIE". I'm not a fan of that thinking. I'm...
My First To Do’s After 6 Months ‘Off’
I received 2 notepads this Christmas titled something like “Things I want to say to clients but shouldn’t, so I write them down here instead”. I don’t know if it’s my face, direct approach, or if this was labeled “for freelancers” in a gift guide somewhere that compelled two different people to buy that for me, either way — I like it. 😈 I used the first page in one of these journals to draft my Most Important Things to accomplish during Q1. Here’s what my goals are: Run Client Acquisition...
I help brands leverage organic content on social media, email, and more.