December 23, 2025
What should you actually keep, and what should you drop, when it comes to ads, hiring and onboarding? On the Tuesday of Christmas break, Judy and Greta played a round of Love It or Leave It on the three areas they spend the most hours on. They didn’t know what the other would say, so this one is truly unfiltered.
(Fun fact: Riverside told them their most-used word of 2025 wasn’t “ads” or “reach.” It was “Greta,” mostly from Judy.) Here’s what they’re keeping, what they’re leaving, and why, from two people who help scale businesses to seven figures and beyond.
Both said leave it. Greta’s caveat: Meta now labels some awareness campaigns that use organic content as “boost post,” which only adds confusion. With a true boost, you often don’t hit your target audience, and you pay per post. Greta recently loaded 15 organic posts into one reach ad for $15 a day total. Boosting one post could cost that much on its own.
Judy hears it all the time in the Simplicity Ad System: “I ran an ad.” Did you run an ad, or did you boost a post? Paying Meta doesn’t mean you ran an ad. Reach and awareness ads get you more for your money, including low-cost new followers, sometimes for $5 to $10 a day using several posts instead of one that people get tired of seeing.
Trial reels are easy if you have time, because you’re usually finessing a reel you’d post anyway, and they go to non-followers. A boost might only reach people who already follow you. Just make sure trial reels relate to your product, service, or a reason to follow you. If your goal is to make money, plan them with your organic and ads teams as part of your overall marketing strategy.
Greta loves them as free data. A client getting ready to run course ads wasn’t ready to go live yet, so they planned three trial reels with three hooks aimed at three audiences. Whichever performs best will likely do well in ads too, without spending a dollar. It’s likely a new training coming to the Simplicity Ad System.
Judy adds that some creators, like Dan Martell, test hooks on TikTok. Trial reels keep testing on Instagram, which rewards your account, and you can easily repost a winner to your feed.
If you’re surprised they both said love it, this must be your first episode. We don’t run ads for any client without them. We’ve watched reach and awareness results compound again and again, and experts running million-dollar campaigns increasingly agree, especially since Andromeda rewards engagement like likes, shares, and comments. Reach campaigns also give you a much bigger warm audience to retarget.
We’ve seen $60K in sales from $1,000 in ad spend: $200 on reach and $800 on a masterclass, by design. Reach ads also make ads approachable. If you have an extra $1,000 and want to test ads without hiring a big agency, start here. Inside the Simplicity Ad System, you can have them running in about two weeks, or days if your Meta business account and pixel are set up properly. Even our VAs run them.
Greta said love it, partly just to argue. We don’t actually run AI videos for clients, but she finds them hilarious and has played with quirky visual hooks. Judy said leave it, with nuance. She dislikes AI used unethically, like fitness promos showing results that aren’t real. Used openly, she’s fine with it. Answer honestly when Meta asks whether you used AI, or you risk getting shut down. AI is also great for course graphics, brainstorming, and testing reactions to something like a book cover.
Hiring and onboarding take real time. Judy spent about 12 hours in interviews the week before. If you have a problem in your business, a person can usually solve it, so she dedicates serious time to finding the best talent for our business and our clients’.
If you think you don’t have time to screen, you haven’t been shown how. A screening can be written, not just video or phone. Send five questions, have AI analyze the answers against your criteria, and spend 5 to 10 minutes reviewing instead of an hour-long interview. Judy has seen great resumes fall apart at the screening stage. Greta can get through 100 candidates in about two hours. You’ll also be surprised how many people won’t do the work.
Greta loves them but admits she becomes the bottleneck. She had four waiting to review. They take more thought than screenings, and she wants to hire everyone who does them. For some roles, especially VAs, Judy suggests hiring two.
Make your test meaningful. If too many people pass, it’s not a good test. It should narrow you to your top five and mirror real work, maybe something they’d do in their first month, so you see how they think and perform. Think of it as a robust task, not a two-week project. We always pay for test projects, which usually take one to three hours, to honor people’s time.
Judy gets lots of spam and people who don’t read the posting, like applicants from other countries when the role requires a specific location. Even when a post lists a client’s business, applicants message her directly. Only a handful complete the screening questions. If she posts at all, she’d rather a recruiter handle it.
What she does love: browsing other people’s job posts and their comment sections for strong candidates and recommendations. We’ve hired three people who are still on our team or clients’ teams that way, and she gets job description ideas too.
Judy once had a side business writing resumes for executives, and even trained resume writers. That’s exactly why she’s skeptical. A great resume writer can make anyone look phenomenal, and it doesn’t show personality. She’d never hire from a resume or education alone. It’s about how well someone demonstrates the skill, not how well they describe it. The only thing Greta checks: length of time in each role, to spot heavy job hopping.
Nobody lists a reference who won’t praise them. (Greta’s exception: pet sitters.) If you do check references, say so in the job posting so candidates can gather them. Judy prefers verifying employment, since people sometimes change titles or dates, and asking one question: “Is this person rehireable?” Many former employers will only confirm employment and answer that.
It depends on the recruiter. Clients who tried other recruiters while we were busy sometimes had basics missed, like a role that required a Spanish speaker. Before hiring a recruiter, ask to see three solid candidates they’ve placed in the last three months and to walk through their process.
Then manage them like a new hire. Give consistent feedback: “This candidate is missing this, this one is close to perfect, let’s move them to screening.” Recruiters are great at selling your vision, but they’ve never done the role, so you still need to define the job. After testing about a dozen recruiters and agencies, Sphere Rocket is the one that takes feedback and acts on it best.
Onboarding sets your standards, and a standard that isn’t enforced isn’t a standard. If you say people shouldn’t be late to meetings but you’re late throughout onboarding, you’re not showing the standard.
Your team is an investment. Even if you recruit an all-star like Steph Curry, the coach still meets with him. Why expect someone new to your industry or role to hit the ground running without daily check-ins? They can be 15 minutes. Greta admits she hates meetings and prefers spreadsheets, but she’s seen the benefit. Even if you hire someone who knows more than you about a topic, they don’t know more about your business or audience. Greta figures she needs to train someone on something at least seven times before expecting them to know it, and daily syncs give you those touch points.
Building training takes hours up front, but you only build it once per role and then update it. Our VA onboarding is self-paced in the first week and customized to your company and brand. It only takes about 30 minutes of your time a day, mostly to make sure they have access to what they need while they learn your systems, platforms, team, CRM, communication, tools, products, and services.
SOPs don’t have to be complicated. Start with a Loom video and build more detailed SOPs as a process gets repeated. The goal is something to reference so people don’t have to ask you, and can QA their own work. Make creating SOPs part of new hires’ roles. Upgraded Loom can turn a video into an SOP, and ChatGPT can help you outline a process just by describing it.
Run reach ads. Boosting charges per post and gives you less control. One reach ad can promote many organic posts for a small daily budget.
Yes. They show your content to non-followers and let you test hooks for free before putting ad money behind them.
Use short written or recorded screening questions, analyze them against your criteria (AI can help), then use paid, realistic test projects for your top candidates.
Not much, in Judy’s experience. Look at time in past roles, verify employment, and ask if the person is rehireable instead.
Hold short daily syncs, provide structured self-paced training, and create simple SOPs, starting with Loom videos.
We offer the Simplicity Ad System, done-for-you ads, and VA hiring and onboarding support. See our services or book a call with us.
© 2026 Bringing Simplicity LLC. All rights reserved. Terms & Conditions | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy
Bringing Simplicity is a full-service marketing and Meta Ads agency helping established online businesses scale proven offers through paid advertising, stronger systems, and smarter strategy.
