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Boosting vs. Real Ads, ROAS & Margin with Britt Holmes · The Unfiltered Tea with Evie

• Britt Holmes: this is the thing that oftentimes brands get trapped in is that they're so inside the brand that they can't see that not everybody knows the inner workings of their business. And I think that that's really important: is being able to step outside it and be like, who am I actually trying to target here? Who am I'm trying to serve? What do they need to hear to get them to take whatever action we want them to take? Evie Tavares: I'm Evie, and you're listening to The Unfiltered Tea with Evie. I'm a business owner, a copywriter, and a storyteller at heart. And over the years of building my own business and growing my own community, the thing I've loved the most is hearing people's stories, the strategies that they swear by, the mindset shifts that changed everything for them, and the honest truth about what it takes to grow a business from the ground up. Every person has something that makes them different in their industry. And finding that thing and amplifying it is basically my whole job. And this podcast is just another way I get to do that. In this podcast, I'm bringing on incredible guests from my community, experts in marketing, business growth, and mindset to share the real, unfiltered version of what building a business looks like. There's no polished highlight reel in these episodes, just the tea. So let's get into it. Welcome back to the Unfiltered Tea with Evie. I'm sitting down today with Britt Holmes and I'm so excited to chat about this topic because I have no idea about any of it. So very excited. Thank you for coming on, Britt. Britt Holmes: Thank you so much for having me. Evie Tavares: okay, so for those of you who don't know Britt, I'm gonna give Britt a chance to introduce herself and kind of talk about what she does and and who she is and all the all the fun stuff. Britt Holmes: Alright, hey everyone, thanks for joining. My name's Britt Holmes. I am the founder of Merit Media. We are Only agency. We specialize in serving ads for clients on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google. I've been in the industry for over 14 years. I have clocked over 80,000 hours in platform. I was really good at being a workaholic. Served in pretty much every industry at this point, not to sound like an ego, but that's kind of the reality of how much time I've been in the industry and how much work I've done there. Now we work with clients that are small to medium. Size, service-based or e-commerce, and we are really good at getting results. A lot of our service-based businesses are within the healthcare space and they will be adding multiple locations. So that's really cool. Or on our e-commerce side, oftentimes what we're seeing is between 15 to $30 for every dollar that they invest in advertising. So overall, we have a really great system going on. We love to serve our clients. And that's pretty much it. Evie Tavares: So you mentioned that you did this kind of in corporate before. What made Britt Holmes: Yeah. Evie Tavares: you switch? Cause now you've got your own thing. What made you take that leap? Britt Holmes: Yeah, it's not like that glamorous of a story. So basically what was going on is I was, as I said before, a workaholic. I made it my mission to work my way to the top as quickly as possible. and pretty much that was my main priority. so I achieved that. I was the youngest VP at this New York City agency that I was working at. but I Was also working 16 to 18 hours a day, oftentimes six days a week. And throughout that employment at that particular agency, I also became a mom. And then I became a mom again 18 months later. I was also the primary parent and pretty much the sole parent at that time. So it got to be a point where I was basically like felt like I was dying because I was working 16 to 18 hours a day, getting the kids ready for school, getting them to daycare. Picking them up, all of that kind of stuff. And then once I put them down to bed, I was hopping back on again. And at one point, I was like, this is not living. Like, I worked so hard to get here, only to realize that I have even less time freedom than you know what I had anticipated. So I kind of turned into a little bit of a rage quit. And I was going to be a sugar cookie decorator because at that point my kids were like, you know, a couple of months, like one. Into and it was like those things are so expensive, and everyone was doing them, and I was like, I could make a business out of this. Fun fact, you have to have skill to be able to do that. so there was a big Pinterest fail day in my kitchen, and then I was like, okay, well, that wasn't a good idea. so then I started contracting with some other agencies that I had known, and I gave myself three months, and I was like, if in three months you can make back your monthly income that you were making on course. corporate, you don't have to go back to working a corporate job. And so that was kind of my parameters that I got throughout that time. I was like, wow, this is actually working. So by the end of that three months, Merit Media was born and we've been serving clients ever since. So we're in about year four and a half right now. Yeah. Evie Tavares: That's awesome. I love I didn't know that you wanted to be a sugar cookie decorator. I love that. Yes. Britt Holmes: Well, it was very short-lived. I was like, I can do this. How hard can it be? And I was like, it was very hard. Like it was by definition the Pinterest fail. Like, Evie Tavares: Yeah. Britt Holmes: yeah, it was not good. It's not not it. Evie Tavares: I love that. So I'm curious what are kind of like the skills and strategies that you brought with you from your experience in corporate advertising that you bring with you now into advertising for small businesses? Britt Holmes: Yeah, I think one of the greatest skills that I've developed over time, and I also layer this in with the fact that I have ADHD, is that I am really good at understanding human behavior and what what drives somebody to take a given action. And from that, also from seeing it in I've worked internationally, so like every country, so I understand different cultures of buying. I've worked in over 12 different languages, so I understand there's so many different linguistic things that come into. It and also we have data when you're running advertising, there's no I hope this worked like something that you would see with like a newspaper article or something like that. Like, I have the hard facts. So not only am I understanding how consumer behavior works from like just a general social way, but I'm also seeing that data. So I think that that's one of the coolest things that I've always been able to do is kind of take a step back and be like, we understand we're trying to sell this product or this service, but like, how is somebody actually If we were putting ourselves in their shoes, how would they want to be spoken to? You know, how do we meet them where they're at so that it's it's a seamless transaction overall? obviously, when you're working with large dollars, things move really quickly. So we were able to test a lot of different strategies when I was on the corporate side, understand some implications and all of that stuff. Now, when we work with our clients, and I also employ people that have to have a minimum of five years of corporate experience to join our team. And so what this means is that essentially we're able to walk into account and know what's going on. So there's not that guesswork that you have when you're either DIYing or when you're working with somebody that's junior or is only working within one industry. We have this breadth of knowledge across many different industries, many different options in terms of optimizations and stuff like that. So I think I think just overall, it's like it was like becoming a sponge and sucking in all of the information that I potentially could, and then taking that and then applying it to smaller businesses, which I also, for the record, hate saying small business because I think it's totally bullshit. but smaller businesses because then I'm able to kind of help them to see that there's this crazy impact that you can have. Like, for example, one of our clients is a local candle business, and last Last year we started working with them. I think we were about seven months into working with them, and they had to cancel their Black Friday because we oversold and they couldn't keep up with their product. So it's like really cool to do that. But they also previously were like, we did ads and blah blah blah and it didn't really work or it wasn't that great. But it's just really cool being able to see that kind of impact that we can take from having this big experience of like working with these bigger brands and then taking them and moving into a smaller brand where you know at the end of the day. We're feeding her family and her team's family, and I know all those employees there. And I think that that's one of the things that's so cool about working with smaller businesses as opposed to like these big corporations where it's like they don't really care about their employees, the end user, the end like product, all of that stuff. So I think that that's a huge part of what drives me. Evie Tavares: Mm. I love that. And you talked a little bit about people kind of doing it on their own before they come to you. I'm curious, do you feel like not everybody should be doing ads? And then at what point should they be doing ads, Britt Holmes: For sure. So I think that there is a point where you should be investing in ads, but I don't think that that points as soon as many people think it is. so my thing is that the main criteria for having ads, the very basic things that we won't work with a client unless they have these is one, they have to have a website that's already completing the desired action that they want us to do. So are they already getting the bookings or are they Already getting the sales on the website because if that's not the case, it's a copywriter issue in that Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Britt Holmes: the messaging is off, it's not doing what it's supposed to do. Because if we start running ads and their websites are garbage, we're just gonna be spending money for the sake of spending money. Like you're just adding fuel to a fire that you know you need to fix. the other thing too, yes, Evie Tavares: You need to call me first. Britt Holmes: call Eevee, everyone. And mean, like, it doesn't have Evie Tavares: Ha Britt Holmes: to be, and I I'm I'm not 100% certain, but you can always do a consult, you can do a one-time session and at least get some ideas. there's definitely cost effective ways in terms of working with copywriters so that you know it doesn't have to be like a five, ten thousand dollar thing if you don't have those funds. Like I think that people often think that services are a lot less accessible than what they are. And instead of just having that conversation and being like, Hey, look, I don't have this budget. Is there a way that you can work with me? Then you know that's a conversation that you should be having because then, you know, in time, when you do have that money, then you can go back and get like the full thing done. the other thing that I think is very important is having a social media presence. And Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Britt Holmes: I am not like the girl that's like, my God, social media, like I love it. personally, as a business owner, hate it. But it's a reality of the job, right? And the way that businesses need to use it, and it varies between Like a an e-commerce business and a services business, but the reality is like when you're running a service, you just need to have essentially business card type information on there: who you are, what you And like, are you still in business? So, like, very periodic messaging is really what's necessary there. on this on the e-commerce side of things, like you know, a little bit more posting, just focusing on the products is probably valuable. but having a social media presence simply because if we're driving traffic to your site and people are like, I don't know, I'm gonna fact check them, they're gonna hop over to social media. If your social media is dead. Then it's automatically putting up a red flag to them before anything else. So that makes it harder for you to close a sale. and then the third thing is just really making sure that you have that tracking set up on your website before you activate. So tracking meaning that when somebody clicks an ad and goes onto your website, you know. what kind of that path was. So instead of just being like, well, they clicked the ad and then I got some sales, but I don't know for sure. You need to know for sure. And if you don't know for sure, if you're DIYing it, pause that campaign immediately. I am not a fan of people DIYing because the reason for that is not because I'm greedy, but simply by the fact that it is not something that is as easy as just like pressing go and then it's Just a miracle worker. There's a lot of setup that goes into it in terms of like the way you structure your campaigns, which you can get DIY courses. However, where those fall short is when you actually are activating. And a lot of people are like, I took this course, so I'm obviously know everything. They don't teach you when the skin is actually in the game. They take you up until that point. So you feel a sense of like false confidence almost. But once you're in there, You're on your own, and there's very little support for people that are DIYing while they're actually in the account spending money. And to me, that's terrifying because oftentimes, even with those DIY courses, tracking gets missed. So you don't know where your money is going. And you also don't have the skills or experience to know how to manipulate the settings so that you're getting cost efficiency. So things are always going to be more expensive. So my recommendation is always. Kill off all of the things that you can do for free. Have your social media, do your networking, have your website working, get the copywriter, all of those things, do them first. And then when you're at a point where you're like, hey, look, I'm getting as many leads as I can from referrals and all of the organic ways, and I have some money to put towards this, that's when you should start ads. Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Britt Holmes: I I honestly have seen so many business owners burning money. by trying to save money. And the reality is, is it just doesn't work. And Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Britt Holmes: I know that's kind of grim to say, but the reality is, I wouldn't let my family run ads DIY. Not a chance. Evie Tavares: Yeah. And it's like there has to be somewhere for them to land. the ad can be perfect and flawless. But if like Britt Holmes: Mm-hmm. Evie Tavares: you said, if they're going into the rest of your marketing ecosystem and there's nothing there, then that trust is almost like not attaching from the ad to the rest of your ecosystem and then it's not converting. Britt Holmes: A hundred percent. And I think the other misconception that a lot of people have in terms of advertising is that they have to be these huge, flashy, flaring things. And the reality is, is that that's not the case. It needs to really evoke your brand messaging in your tone. but it doesn't have to be these like wildly different pieces of messaging or imagery that strays so far from what your brand is, simply to capture a user that is like the wrong way to approach it. or The other mindset of people being like, I need to change my creative every two days. No, you actually don't because there's data that shows when an ad's being shown too frequently to people. That's when you do a switch up. But oftentimes it's like this obsession with no, we're putting out like 500 ads and we're amazing and all of this stuff. But you're not actually getting any data from that because there's too much going on essentially. So I see that too, and it's very common with. Within my industry, with agencies being like, well, we change creative all the time and blah blah blah. I'm like, if you're changing it all the time, you better have a lot of money running in those ads, because otherwise you're just wasting time and probably charging your clients a shit ton for creative. Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Speaking of creative, I would like to get kind of your take. I've been seeing a lot of like the AI poster stuff and like everybody's using AI for their posters. how has AI kind of impacted your industry and and impacted what you're doing? Britt Holmes: So there's a lot of things that are going on as it relates to AI across the board. there are systems where you can basically tell AI like, Hey, go into the account and make this change or or whatever. Just like you can use AI for really anything administrative. And then, there is AI tooling that exists within the platform. So that is something that's been there for quite some time, probably before it got cool. so that's always been in there in terms of it was called machine learning. So it would like learn about how people are engaging with your ads and the settings and all of that stuff, and then give greater priority to things that are outperforming and that type of thing. So those already have existed in the campaign probably for 10 years, like a long time. maybe not. 10 but probably five to seven years. so that's already been in there for a while. this is the thing is like you can use AI, and I'm a huge AI user in my business. I basically have all of my administrative work managed through AI skills, is you can really use it for as much as you want to. The one thing where I don't trust it yet is working with live dollars, I don't love it. Like we have like machine like automations to turn campaigns on or off during certain like sale periods and stuff like that. But I don't necessarily feel comfortable right now where the technology is to be like, go on, off you go, run it. I like to have people that actually like are using their human brains to be able to do that type of work within the business. you know, you can always use Claude or whatever AI. for ideation around messaging and stuff like that but when when it push comes to shove actually being in the accounts I'm not comfortable with outsourcing that because it's live money and it only takes one like glitch to spend thousands of dollars without you know it being caught. Evie Tavares: What are those glitches? 'Cause I've heard of people having that where all of a sudden they get a bill from Meta for fourteen thousand dollars for an ad. where do those budget glitches come from? Britt Holmes: Probably most of those would be coming from people setting the campaigns up wrong. meta is a nightmare in terms of customer support. I will say that. It has never been good. It actually I feel like, and this is not based on like actual data, but When Meta came into the advertising world, which was after Google, they were so bad at customer service. And I swear that what happened was that Google then said, Hey, look, wow, we can be pretty shitty and get away with it, and people are still gonna spend money. So then they've pulled back their customer service as well. so basically glitching it's a matter of setting up a budget without a constraint. So there is the capability to essentially have them as unlimited budgets, or you know, there's different levels. So there's like a campaign and then there's like an ad set level. So potentially what's happened here is one of those have gone on astray, or they have set automations in it where you know you can increase it by X amount or decrease it by X amount. But generally speaking, you don't see those massive overspends unless somebody has made an error. Evie Tavares: Hm. Britt Holmes: And that's that piece. There is also, and I'll say this as a disclaimer to anybody that's running ads, if you do not have two-factor authentication on your ad accounts, whether it's meta, your meta accounts, your Google account, your email, you know, all that stuff, get it on. Because one of the biggest things that's happening right now is there's a lot of accounts that get hacked. And if you don't have that on, you are a hundred percent legally responsible financially for that expense. So And this is very common. So and so covering that off is absolutely necessary. The other thing too is, you know, if feel something suspicious is going on, hold your credit card right away. Go onto your bank account and hold it. If you find like weird notifications coming out, hold it. Because it's a lot safer doing it that way than anything else. there's some safeguards that exist of like invalid clicks, for example. So basically someone clicks your ad and then hops off right away. you can get a credit for that, but these massive overspends, it's very difficult to prove that the system is at fault. yeah. Evie Tavares: Okay, gotcha. I want to talk more about like the buyer psychology and the strategy behind it. you talk about margin mattering more than the ROAS, which is return on ad spend. Britt Holmes: Yeah. Evie Tavares: Can you break down what that means in real numbers and why Great Roaz could actually still be losing somebody money? Britt Holmes: Yeah, for sure. So a perfect example of this is I had this person come to me and they said, Hey, look, I am going to run one of the I'm gonna make millions of dollars. I'm going to get you to set up my ads, and the product is going to cost one dollar. But the goal is, is that I'm gonna be so good at showing up that everyone's gonna give me one dollar each and then I'm gonna make all this money. And I'm like, okay, so let's break this down. If it costs between, let's say, three to five dollars for every time that somebody clicks your ad. Without confirming that they are converting, meaning that they are making that purchase, you potentially or you 100% are losing at minimum $4 for every time you run a campaign. Right? So if you were looking at this from a perspective of like, it's only costing me $3 a click, that's not so bad. But what's the cost that you're actually getting back? Right? So if you're not making money, it doesn't make sense to run. On advertising for that because you'd always be in a negative situation in that case, right? So I'm like, well, why would you want to make negative $4 for every time you get someone to your site, and that's not even confirming for sure that they're purchasing? So that's where margin comes into play, right? So you're you're making a negative $4 margin in that case. Like the ROAS, the return on investment, like it's kind of just you have to really be able to weigh what the value of that service is and what Lifetime looks like, as opposed to just being like, yeah, this is successful, or I have a 100% conversion rate or a 90% conversion rate or all of these things. You really have to like see, does it make sense? So oftentimes what we're doing is we're looking at our clients' cost of goods, what it costs them really to like make those products, and are we actually elevating that? Or is it just adding fuel to the fire? Similarly, like when we're talking about having good copy on. On your website, we can't just if we're driving traffic there but you're making negative dollars, it's not actually helping you. So that's a piece that we need to look at all the time. for example, if you're a healthcare provider and you don't have a good return rate on your clients, but you're paying a hundred dollars, and this is a really high CPA, but let's say you're paying $100 to get them, CPA is cost per acquisition. So if you're paying $100 to get them there and you're only getting paid a hundred $120 for the service is making $20 worth it. Probably not, right? whereas if you're like, okay, yeah, but then they come and they stay for a year and they're paying me every two weeks $120, then it makes sense. So it's kind of looking beyond just like that one-time transaction and like looking at that lifetime value to determine it actually makes sense for you to be running ads. Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. And on the psychology piece, do you have an example, like say somebody had their messaging and then there was like a tweak that you made that just made all the difference and completely changed the the ad? Britt Holmes: Yeah, so we're not copywriters, but we work with them a lot. And I'd say that the whole thing is that oftentimes people think that they have to have these flashy messages to be able to stand out. And I actually find that that's not the case. I think that being more personable and authentic in your brand and tone is really where it stands out. And understanding your who your audience is and how you can speak to them in a way that's engaging for that specific audience is really what's important. And And that should transcend from what's on the landing page copy through to what's on your ad copy. So when that all is in unison, where it's like someone sees your ad and they're like, I really like the sound of this. This, intrigues me. They go to the website and they see that information, then they're more willing to or likely to convert. And I think that it's important to not create this disconnect simply because you're like, well, I want to stand out or I want to sound flashy because there's so many people in my industry. That's actually not the best thing. And I think to take it back one more step is that if you're as any individual when you're searching something and you see a message and then you are like, okay, click it. And then you go to the website and it's completely different, you're instantly turned off, right? You've already lost that client. so there's that situation, but the other thing that happens is, when you're in an area where there's a lot of competition, especially if there's like large competitors. We face this a lot with our therapist clients. Is that they're like, well, better help is there. And it's like this massive, like basically a search engine for finding a therapist. But their messaging is so cold and corporate that it's like if you're somebody in crisis, so somebody that's needing mental health support, and you're like seeing this like over 10,000 professionals on this network, that does not make me want to work with you. I want to be like the person that like the words are hitting me and I'm I'm like, okay, they get it. So I think that that's also something that's really important in terms of like thinking about it is just like you don't have to be like everybody else. You should be who you are because that's the most successful thing that you can do. Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. What's your favorite strategy for biopsychology when it comes to ads? Britt Holmes: Hmm. I think that it's not necessarily a strategy, I would say, but in terms of just general practice, is like I just step back from it. It's like, and this is something that I learned when I was working with Home Depot. Is and the I can't ever forget this one. It's like they we got their event calendar, their promotional calendar, and they're like, hey, here's all the promos for the fall. And I'm like, okay, or this, whatever. We get them all the time, right? The May 2x4 event. And they're like, yeah, put it everywhere. keywords should be May 2x4. And blah blah blah. It was a wood event for lumber. Do you really think that someone's like, hell yeah, it's time for the May Wood event on the long weekend? No! And this is the thing that oftentimes brands get trapped in is that they're so inside the brand that they can't see that not everybody knows the inner workings of their business. And I think that that's really important: is being able to step outside it and be like, who am I actually trying to target here? Who am I'm trying to serve? What do they need to hear to get them to take whatever action we want them to take? And then build it for that, as opposed to this personally like business-driven decision with business messaging that really doesn't align with anything that your consumer base would even understand is kind of what you need to do there. Evie Tavares: Mm. I love that. the made two by four event. I mean it's clever Britt Holmes: I know. Evie Tavares: but like you said, like zooming out and looking at the bigger picture okay, so something that I hear a lot around your industry is like boosting versus the actual ads. Can we talk about that for a second? What's the difference and and what Britt Holmes: Yeah. Evie Tavares: what would you choose each of those for? Britt Holmes: Boosting is paying to be popular. and that is the most basic way to put it. So when you are opting to boost a post, basically what you're doing is handing the money over to Meta and saying, Here you go, make something happen. I don't care what you do with it. I don't care who you target, and I don't want you to tell me what happened. Just tell me if you gotta click. It's so good. No, it's honestly the worst thing that you can do. Because at the end of the day, and that's just the basic things. If you take it a step further, what happens to those those boosted posts? They drive you back to your profile on your Instagram, for example. Okay, well, let's think about it. What's on your profile page? You have you have your image, you have your headlines, you have potentially highlights, you have at least one URL. You've got your entire feed of posts. So what are they gonna do? They're gonna get lost. That's what's gonna happen. There's nothing gonna happen. They might look at a few more things, they might click your URL, which you're not really gonna know because you don't have tracking. It's just too much broadness. It's too broad for you to be able to really expect anything from it. And also the targeting of it is so minimal. So the thing that people don't realize is that if you were to set up, and it's very confusing, and they do this on purpose, right? They try. to make the one that makes the more money. Easier to do. So obviously they're gonna make boosted posts easy for you to do. they're like, Do you want to boost this post? You're like, hell yeah, here's my credit card. Sign it up, right? That's it. That's pretty much all you get. But what you can do is if you had an actual ad campaign through Meta Business Suite, is that you can still boost that post per se, but you get to choose every single audience targeting piece the same way you would with a full campaign. So your location, your demographics, and you get to drive it to a landing page on your website, which means tracking, and all of those things, right? So it's like it's more work, obviously, if you use the business suite to pull that post through, promote it, and drive it to your website. But you get the data and you own that data because then you can get them to go onto your website and then you can track it. Can retarget from it all of that stuff. Whereas if you do a boosted post, you really don't get much from it. Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Britt Holmes: So I know, and like a lot of people will be like, I want to be popular, I want to get more followers. You can still do that with a regular ad campaign and get tracking without Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Britt Holmes: just not having any idea where your money is going. So if anyone wants to boost a post, feel free to just put it in my GoFundMe and I'll take that and put my kids in private school. Thank you. Evie Tavares: I love it. okay, so I wanna shift gears a little bit and talk about like the more personal side of your business. Britt Holmes: Mm. Evie Tavares: You mentioned that you have ADHD, you're a mom, you're running a successful business. What does that look like for you? Britt Holmes: it looks like a lot of process. Basically, I strive on routine. I am very good at having things set up in a way that allows me to do all of these things, allows me to be the present parent, allows me to run the successful business, allows me to spend time with my grandparents and my family and all of that stuff. I know this sounds so silly, but if I didn't have my life overly planned, I don't think I would be able to succeed. so like a lot of automations in terms of the business, Because when you have ADHD, there's a lot of executive dysfunction that comes along with it. I think that that's a part that, you know, people often are like, I have ADHD, I can't be successful, it's bullshit. You have to learn how to create systems that work effectively for you. and that's really anybody, that's not just people with ADHD. But, you know, if you're consistently like, I'm late every day. Why are you late every day? What are the processes or what are the things that you need to complete before you need to leave the house? Okay. So last time you were 30 minutes late. Okay, get ready 30 minutes earlier. Or is there something within that process that's slowing you down? And like obviously there's things that come up, like your kids, like, I don't want to wear those shoes. Or like, you know, decide as you're running out the door and you're already kind of late, and they're like, I want to wear a whole different outfit, like whatever, right? Those things happen, but being able to have things so that you're like organized enough that you're like, okay, we get up. And it also works well with kids. Kids are great on schedule. So it's like, you know, at our house, it's like you wake up, you get you make your bed, you get yourself dressed. We go downstairs and we do breakfast. My oldest daughter, she's seven, she makes like the eggs and the toast and stuff like that. She's very well trained. so that's really helpful. And so, like, while they're eating breakfast, I'm chatting with them, and then I'm making lunches at that point in time. And it's always the same schedule. like I'm like the perfect case for someone to get abducted because I do the same thing every day. but that's what I find is very successful for me. I'm also very protective with my time. I actually had one of my clients reach out the other day, she was sending a referral, and she's like, Man, you're Boundaries are insane. And I don't feel like I'm very great at boundaries, but I have very set rules of engagement for the business. In that like my key working hours are between the hours of 10 and 2, Monday through Thursday. And with that, I take calls on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday only. Monday is like my administrative slash reset because we all know how chaotic the weekends can feel with kids and activities and all of that stuff. So I'm like I need a little bit slower start on a Monday. Whereas I used to be like Monday meetings, yeah, everything. No, I needed to be slower, get my administrative stuff in, get everybody organized, jump into it. but I also with the call scheduling, it's like I only take the calls between 10 and 2, those three days a week. And the reality is, is that a lot of times people are like, well, that's pretty limited. It's not because people, if they want to work with me, they will book into those times. And if they're not available at that week, they're gonna book the next. Week, I have clients or prospective clients that will book a month in advance, and it's not that my schedule's that backed up, but you're like, hey, that's meant this works well with their schedule, with my schedule, and that's okay, right? So the difference is if you're building a business that's supposed to be sustainable long term, it can't just be the business, especially if you're a mom. And I always say to people, it's like if they're overwhelmed in their business, I say, hey, look, you need to take a step back. Your life is comprehensive. So you have to have a 360-degree plan for your life. You can't just have like the business is one thing, the personal life is the other thing. It all has to work in sync for it to be successful. So, you know, if you're overwhelmed by groceries. Uber the It'll be cheaper than taking you out of the business. If you, you know, if your emails are too much, build an AI agent for it. Like there's so many ways that you can work through it. So it's just been a lot of trial and error, but usually the biggest reflection point is if I'm feeling overwhelmed and chaotic, why is that? And how can I fix that? And that's the question that I always sit with. Because I honestly, and this is probably not the best thing to say, is I think that the victim. Mindset is complete bullshit. I think that every single person has travesty, trauma, loss, overwhelm in their life, mental health challenges, health challenges. There is always something going on in every single person's life. If you choose to let it beat you, then it's going to beat you. If you choose to adapt and find ways to make your life work for you, you will do it and you will be successful. Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. I do the same thing with calls actually too. that it's only it used to be just Mondays, but now I've got another one going to school. So I've got more free time. So I've got Mondays and Wednesdays. But it's just the mental jump from doing work, doing writing, whatever, to then have to switch into a call mode. Go on Britt Holmes: Yeah. Evie Tavares: a call. And then try and go back into this mode over here, it's too much, right? So like having those kind of structures, like you said, are huge. Britt Holmes: Yeah. Mm-hmm. And I think the other thing too, especially if you're somebody that has ADHD, is your immediate response to hearing what Evie just said is like, well, I can't because I'm this. That's not true. Things don't need to be like black and white. It doesn't have to be like, well, between these two hours I can only do this or this and this. if you don't have that capacity, and this is anyone really, but like that's usually like the knee-jerk reaction of ADHD people is like, well it's my no. It doesn't have to be like these like hard rules. this is a template and we try to live within the template and things can flex and change, but this is the baseline. And that is what I always go back to. Evie Tavares: That's why we're self-employed, right? Is to like Britt Holmes: Yeah. Evie Tavares: have that flexibility. yeah, we still treat it like scheduled work, but it's nice to have that little bit of flexibility when it's needed. Yeah. Britt Holmes: For sure. It's totally true. Evie Tavares: Yeah. you also have a podcast with Fuja, Britt Holmes: Mm-hmm. Evie Tavares: who was also a guest recently on the show. I love the chats that you have in there? They're so open and raw and just honest about scaling businesses and and what that looks like. What made you decide to start doing that? Britt Holmes: Yeah, so it's kind of one of those things where we would have these like really long WhatsApp conversations, just like basically what is in those in those podcast episodes is like basically what we were having in terms of conversations on WhatsApp. And got we got to the point where we're like, if we're talking about these things, there must be other people that are talking about these things. And it's not always easy to find people that are willing to open up, especially about the harder things that are willing to kind of have those conversations. And we're both kind of comfortable with that. So we're like, let's have them. Why not? Right? Like if we feel like this both us and like in the same Same phase of life, business owners, young kids, all that stuff. There's gotta be other people. So let's just say it like it is. And that's kind of what happened there. We truthfully had talked about it probably a year before. And we kept like, we would make it and then we would record some episodes and then we'd be like, no, it's not right. And we kept like doing that. And then eventually we finally were like, okay, it's go time. And so we launched it. And we've been doing it for about four months. Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. I love it. I'll link it in the show notes as well, if anybody wants to go have a listen. Before we wrap up with some rapid fire, I wanna kind of give you a chance to let people know where they can find you, where they can connect with you, kind of, you know, what's what's the first step they can take with you. Britt Holmes: Yeah, for sure. So I would recommend if you're looking to chat to me, either to go to my website, meritmedia.com. you can book in directly for a discovery call there with myself. or if you just want to follow along, I Two accounts. I have a personal one, which is at Brithomes Live on Instagram, and that's where I spend more of my time. but I also have at Merit Media Inc., which is the business Instagram, so there's that, and then our newsletter. I am pretty proud of my newsletter. So if you guys want to subscribe to it, I would love that. Evie Tavares: Amazing. And actually, since you mentioned it, because you have a personal brand Instagram, what made you like personal brand is such a big thing this year, I think, for like business owners to have like their business, but then also a personal Instagram. How have you been using that and how have you seen it kind of change your business? Britt Holmes: Yeah, honestly I've always struggled with my personality and how it fits into what I do as a profession. So, for the most part, ads are technical, they're boring, they're incredibly overwhelming. And then I feel like personally I am like, this is gonna sound weird, but I'm funny and I like to be more relaxed and like all of these things. And I was really struggling with how do I do both, right? How do I show up as being professional on one side? But then also being able to show who I am as a person as well, which is where that personal brand came from. It has definitely been a challenge. I am not somebody that like I'm not nervous to speak on camera or anything like that, but it's also not something that I overly prioritize, so I haven't always been great at that. So what I did was I actually turned to carousels and did that because I like to, as you guys might be able to tell, I like to talk. So I was like, how do I get my messaging out without it being overwhelming? So I found that just doing carousels with text on page was something that was really beneficial to get my messaging out to my followers and from that I honestly did that for the longest time and then sometimes I'd sprinkle in some messaging and stuff like that but it's basically to allow To encompass both my personality as well as my professionalism within the brand. And you know, I do my best with it, I would say, Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Britt Holmes: but it's not always something that's super easy, and I think that that's something that a lot of business owners manage because it's like at the end of the day, you're like, I just want to do the work sometimes, but you also have to do the other things so that the work stays steady. Evie Tavares: Yeah, for sure. Well, thank you for answering that little bonus question there. Britt Holmes: Yes. Evie Tavares: Okay, so a little bit of rapid fire. I have a few questions for you. Britt Holmes: Yay. Evie Tavares: do tea or coffee. Britt Holmes: Tea. I'm like a seasonal drink drinker. Yeah, it's weird. Evie Tavares: T Yeah. Okay. okay. if you had to pick one for life, would it be Google Ads or Meta Ads? Britt Holmes: Google. Evie Tavares: Okay. the best money you've ever spent on your own business. Britt Holmes: this is hard. I'm gonna say incorporating it. Cause I think Evie Tavares: Hmm. Britt Holmes: that it was really important for me to be able to have a separate entity outside of my personal property and stuff like that. Because for me, I worked so hard to build my personal assets that I never wanted them to be jeopardized by any kind of business stuff. Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. I know that you have a Frenchie. Britt Holmes: I do. Evie Tavares: What's your Frenchie's name and what's one thing about them that we need to know? Britt Holmes: I'm gonna get her even though this is Hazel, and Evie Tavares: my god. Britt Holmes: something that you need to know about Hazel is that she sleeps on a computer chair beside me And if we take any calls after 2 p.m., you will hear her snoring. Evie Tavares: I love it. one word you'd ban from marketing forever if you could. Britt Holmes: Mm. Honestly, there's so many. Maybe transform. I feel like Evie Tavares: Mm. Britt Holmes: we use that a lot. Evie Tavares: Mm hmm. if your business had a theme song, what would it be? Britt Holmes: god, this one's hard. Instantly like Eye of the Tiger came up. I don't know why, but we're going with that. Doom doom doom. Evie Tavares: I love it. It fits. okay, last one. Do you have any dream collaboration or partnership that you're calling in for the rest of twenty twenty six? Britt Holmes: Ooh. I would love to work with more e-commerce brands. I think that it's so cool. I love being able to make people more money. And like we can do that with our service clients as well, but like through the data be like, hey, if you give me seven grand, I'm gonna give you 145k back in revenue. That just feels so freaking good. So Evie Tavares: Mm-hmm. Britt Holmes: more e-commerce clients would make me so happy. Wow. Evie Tavares: Perfect. We're putting it out there for everyone. Okay, Britt Holmes: Yeah. Evie Tavares: amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming on, Brent. this was such a fun conversation and yeah, we'll chat soon. Britt Holmes: Amazing, thank you. Evie Tavares: That's the tea for today. If something in this episode landed for you, I would love to hear about it. And if you're curious about working together, whether that's finding your own unfiltered tea and bringing it to the front of your marketing, or writing copy that really sounds like you, reach out. I'm always open for a conversation. And before you go, hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you're feeling extra generous today, leave a review. It really helps this show to reach more people who need to hear it. Thank you so much for listening, honestly. And I will see you next time.