Hot Olive Agency
I help brands leverage organic content on social media, email, and more.
🎨 That Time Sherwin Williams Painted Itself Into A Corner
This told me everything I needed to know about Sherwin Williams corporate. In 2020, a Sherwin Williams store employee, Tony Piloseno (@tonerserpaints), got famous on TikTok just by showing behind-the-scenes content of mixing paint. Notice how this post only has 2.5K likes? Not everything has to have 10K+ views to be viral... He'd show the gorgeous colors, talked about how the mixing process worked, different finishes. This dude was a total paint nerd. He bought all paints himself and made...
đź’Ź Do you have chemistry with your clients?
Marketing is a science AND an art. Remember the Will Smith movie, Hitch? (FYI: It's been out 20 years... excuse me while I pull out my grays.) I've been referencing the movie since it came out. Allergic reaction? Cue the scene of Will Smith chugging liquid Benadryl. Dance floor opens up? I roll out the Kevin James dance move: Q-Tip, then throw it away. Going in for a kiss? "You go 90% of the way, they come 10%." Yes, it’s a classic rom-com. But it’s also low-key a guidebook for communication...
The Platinum Rule: How to negotiate conflict
I went on a retreat this week and was in a workshop with an ex-Peace Corps, ex-United Nations conflict mediator. Here's the best thing she taught us: The Platinum Rule: Treat others the way THEY want to be treated. The why: We act out of subconsciousness many times. (Have you ever been told to fix your face?) So when we're in conflict, we may not be aware of what's actually happening inside us. This is where it got good (and I started to hear my therapist in my head): Beneath most conflict...
🌎 Reuse, repair, & repurpose your flopped content
Reuse, Repair, Repurpose Your Flopped Content I grew up in the suburbs, where the closest thing to nature was a 5-foot-thick privacy border and a neighbor’s basset hound who bayed like a broken horn. Now my dream is a backyard hobby farm — chickens, sheep, and a fig tree. I scroll Zillow listings for homes with prebuilt garden beds like some people browse designer bags. (If there’s a chicken coop, I immediately text my fiancé: “It’s perfect.” Never mind the house needs to be gutted.) To...
🤫 Let's play the quiet game
"Better to stay silent and be thought a fool than to speak and prove it." There’s a lot of quotes and advice out there saying this same thing. Until recently, I thought that wisdom was only for that person. You know the one: They take over every meeting, toss out a question only to ignore your answer and yank the conversation back to themselves. But now I think: Maybe that advice is actually for all of us. Not because we’re rude, but because we’re nervous. 🫣 Here are three small changes to...
Brilliant, but useless: Why AI needs YOU
Ever met someone so smart… they were kinda dumb? I lived with a girl who I was convinced would burn the house down. She’d leave her flat iron on high, sitting on a towel. 🫣 One of the smartest, most creative people I know — just not blessed in the common sense department. That’s how I want you to think about AI. It’s like working with someone who has a genius-level IQ, a photographic memory, and 24/7 availability—but who’s never held a real job or lived outside their parents’ house. They’ve...
Steal my conference notes from Social Media Marketing World
It was February 2020 the first time I attended Social Media Marketing World. I flew out with my boss, both of us wanting to do something revolutionary in—wait for it—plumbing. Me and my manager, Shera, in our first Social Media Marketing World 2020. We were there to hustle—taking notes, answering emails between sessions, meeting with the California office, and absorbing as much as we possibly could. By the time I flew home, I was exhausted—then COVID hit. I’ve now attended SMMW four times...
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...
I help brands leverage organic content on social media, email, and more.