π§ In this episode of the podcast, host Justin Levinson sits down with Meghan Holston, Chief of Staff at Small Girls PR, to explore her journey from PR intern to agency leadership.
Meghan shares how creative problem-solving has shaped her career, from navigating early roles in public relations to leading operations with a fresh, people-first mindset. She dives into innovative HR practices, talent development, and how fostering a strong internal culture can directly impact client success.
The conversation also explores the growing role of AI and technology in modern agency operations, and how embracing these tools can unlock new efficiencies and creative opportunities. Tune in for an insightful discussion on leadership, innovation, and building a thriving agency from the inside out. ποΈ
[01:11] Starting in PR and Early Career Insights
[03:47] Scaling in Entertainment and Media PR
[05:04] Transition to Corporate Communications and Leadership
[06:13] Overview of Small Girls PR and Creative Approach
[07:03] Meghanβs Role and Responsibilities at Small Girls PR
[08:44] Creative HR Solutions During Critical Moments
[09:56] Creative Culture and Employee Engagement
[12:37] Talent Acquisition and Creative Hiring Strategies
[14:29] Operational Creativity and Business Solutions
[21:35] Technology and AI in Agency Operations
[23:45] Hybrid Work Model and Office Culture
[25:33] Personal Interests and Work-Life Balance
[27:28] Sleep Hygiene and Productivity Tips
[29:41] Closing Remarks and Future Outlook
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Chief of Staff
Meghan Holston is a senior agency operator and leader with over 20 years of experience across PR, communications, and agency management. She currently serves as Chief of Staff at Small Girls PR, where she functions as the agencyβs operational leadβoverseeing non-billable functions including HR, Talent Acquisition, Operations, and Culture. In this role, Meghan partners closely with executive leadership to drive organizational strategy, scale systems, and ensure the business operates efficiently during periods of growth and change. Before stepping into an agency-wide leadership role, Meghan spent more than 15+ years on the client side of the business, leading high-profile campaigns at the intersection of consumer, entertainment, and celebrity. Her work includes award-winning launches and partnerships for brands in the tech, CPG, and entertainment industries. She also brings deep media & editorial expertise, having led PR efforts for publications including Womenβs Health, Menβs Health, and AARP The Magazine, which continues to inform her strategic approach to storytelling and media. Known for bridging creative ambition with operational rigor, Meghan has led initiatives spanning new business development, pricing and profitability strategy, leadership development, M&A integration, and culture transformation. She is passionate about building agencies that are both creatively excellent and structurally sound. Meghan is based in New York and holds a degree in Communications from New York University.
Justin Levinson (00:10)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Agency Side podcast. I'm your host, Justin Levinson. Today's guest is Megan Holston, Chief of Staff at Small Girls PR. With 20 plus years across PR communications and agency leadership, Megan oversees operations, talent, and culture, partnering closely with executive leadership to help scale the business. Before agency leadership, she spent 15 plus years on the client side, leading award-winning campaigns across consumer entertainment and media. She's known for blending creative ambition,
with operational discipline. Thanks so much for being here today, Megan.
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Meghan Holston (00:42)
Of course, thank you so much for having me.
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Justin Levinson (00:44)
Yeah, so just to get into it, I'd like to learn a bit about your origin story and how you got into this particular space.
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Meghan Holston (00:51)
Yeah, it's funny. went to NYU. studied communications. I got an internship in PR and the rest is history, literally. You know, my internship turned into a full-time opportunity my senior year in college. And so I actually ended up starting full-time with them before I even graduated. I actually took a light semester so that I could do that and really was an on-ramp to my PR career. And I have traditionally worked in, for the most part,
independent, smaller to sort of mid-size agencies where really the hustle and the grind of early 2000s was very much sort of how I started and how I grew up in PR and really shaped. know, media was at such a different juncture and point. I was telling someone the other day that some of these databases like Cision used to be Bakens. It used to be called Bakens and it used to be a book.
used to be a physical book with every journalist and their contact information. And when someone would leave, which was very rare, you stayed 30 years at the New York Times writing that column, they would send you replacement pages. So yeah, it really sort of started as a result of that internship and kicked it off. And I fell in love with public relations. really where I found my sweet spot was helping build, right? Partnering with smaller...
sort of boutique and small agency leaders to help build something. And so that's really how I got my start in PR. I've worn many, many hats. I like to tell people I know a little bit about a lot.
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Justin Levinson (02:23)
How did you get that internship in the first place? How did that come to be?
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Meghan Holston (02:28)
Yeah, I will say that the careers group at Steinhardt School of Education, which is where the comms program at NYU lived, were wonderful. They were very well connected in terms of ensuring that any student that wanted an internship could be matched with agencies, opportunities, in-house roles. β So it really was like their career board and I found it and I interviewed over the summer. I came up to New York City when I was...
you know, over the summer before the next fall semester and interviewed and got the role. it was great. I was working directly with the CEO and the founder of the agency and it was her and I for a long time. so getting that much hands on experience at an internship was, I mean, you would never get that these days. You know, she was like, often let you off and running. So it was great.
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Justin Levinson (03:17)
That's
so cool. And I guess just going through your journey from there to now, in terms of like the types of roles that you had, seemed like you were very like account, account management focused sort of, uh, kind of executive kind of, did that kind of work its way up?
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Meghan Holston (03:31)
Yeah, so I started an agency called Spotlight Communications. They were very much sort of entertainment consumer brands. I worked on Lunabar. I worked on Animal Planet, television, lifetime television. And then from there, I went to an agency called Cobran Communication, which I was there for 10 years. And that's really where sort of I scaled my career, if you will, right? I went from a small boutique shop to more like 50 to 60 people at one time, I think we were. And I worked on consumer brands. worked
very much steeped in entertainment. So was also working on magazines, representing magazines, representing television shows, television networks. I also worked in personal publicity, which was a wild ride, and was bi-coastal for a couple of years, traveling a lot back and forth between the East and West Coast. I also worked on IPOs. It really was like that 10-year span of my career at Coburn. Shereen Coburn DeSanto was the CEO and founder. She really
I think saw the potential in me and sort of let me go, if that makes sense. I also had a wonderful mentor when I was there named Melissa Hubley. She's actually the CMO of Tinder now. And it was really just like people who helped shape me, saw my potential and, and allowed me to take on what I wanted to take on, work what I wanted to work on and build, build teams. And that's really where I built my media and entertainment career and the team behind that at.
at Coburn and β from there I went to KWT, which is under the Stagwell umbrella for about a year. And I really pivoted in that role to focusing on more corporate communications. So I was working with startups, but from a more corporate standpoint. And I think it was there that I sort of realized that I was looking for something different. I was looking for, first of all, found like corporate communication I'd always done.
as like a foundational element, but consumer was really where my heart was. And after running new business and working on it, building a team at Coburn, when I got to KWT, I loved working with Erin Quicken and Gabriella Zucker. But I think what I was looking for was a, the next step in the agency leadership role. I really sort of wanted to take what I learned from new business development and building a team and sort of.
elevate my opportunity to be able to sit on the sort of executive leadership side. And I did about a year of consulting, working with other agencies like La Force and helping them with sort of new business and figuring out what I wanted to do. And then I saw the role for small girls as chief of staff. And when I read the description, I said, that is exactly what I am looking for. And I think the chief of staff role was very different at each.
place, but I was thrilled to be able to oversee all of the departments that I currently
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Justin Levinson (06:18)
Yeah, that's great. I want to get β a bit into what your current day to day is like and what you do at Girls PR. Before that, just for the viewers who might not be familiar with Small Girls PR, I'd love for you to kind of just describe what you guys do in the market.
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Meghan Holston (06:32)
Sure. So the log line for us is that we are a creative communications firm. A lot of times people liken us to an ad agency through the lens of earned media. We are very much steeped in the creative process. We use creative solutions to solve business problems. And I think that is our secret sauce. No one looks at, I've been in many agencies. I just talked about them. I have never seen an agency work the creative process.
to find authentic and clever and interesting ways to insert brands into culture than small girls does. So that's really what we're about is really taking creative solutions to solve business problems.
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Justin Levinson (07:15)
Love it. Yeah. And yeah, and getting into like what your particular role is there, what do you do there?
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Meghan Holston (07:22)
Yeah. So I started out really as sort of a right hand to the CEO working alongside our also our current president, Erica Maiassi. It's interesting. Erica sits on top of the billable functions. So she makes the money and I sit on top of all the non-billable functions and I like to spend the money. So I oversee the HR function, the talent acquisition function. I work on culture and marketing for small girls. I oversee operations department and I work
her as sort of lockstep with finance because a lot of what I do is, sort of finance adjacent, if you will. And so while I don't oversee that department, I work very, very closely with them. And all of those departments are run by wonderful people who have embraced our culture and know what we're all about and can solve.
You know, it's funny, when I took the job, I didn't realize that creativity would, is steeped into every aspect. So we solve HR problems with creative solutions, very creative solutions. I've never had to, before I got to small girls, I never had to work that creative, that sort of like creative muscle operationally, if that made sense, if that makes sense.
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Justin Levinson (08:30)
Yeah, could you give any examples? I'm kind of curious of what, if there's like a creative solution that you've had that you might want to share. No pressure though.
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Meghan Holston (08:37)
Yeah.
Well, I'd say it's sort of creative, but also I would say it's like one of the proudest moments that when the draft opinion for Roe v. Wade was leaked, that it was going to be overturned. I essentially stayed up overnight. knew that, you know, as a part of the executive leadership, I knew where our values lie in protecting our staff and employees. And so I essentially stayed up overnight and drafted a policy where
we would take care of travel and expenses for any employee would have to travel outside of the state for medical care that wasn't covered, reproductive care that wasn't covered. And that was so incredibly well received by our employees, be able to roll that out literally the next morning, you know, with a couple of comments, some back and forth. But I think that's one of the things that I'm really, really proud of, but also just
a creative self to the problem. The problem is our employees are afraid and our employees are nervous about what that means for them. Well, here is sort of the HR function to answer that, but with a really thoughtful detail and albeit creative in that we also cover childcare expenses for anyone who had to travel, right? If you have other children, you need to, so it's just very thoughtful and I think incredibly meaningful for our staff.
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Justin Levinson (09:52)
Yeah. No, that's incredible. That's a really great story to share. your, or in the, the bio when I was talking about what you do, β I guess creative ambition with operation, with operations and discipline. don't know if I'm reading that correctly. Yeah. I guess maybe I'd like to, maybe you could explain that a little bit to me what that means. Thanks for tuning in folks. This episode is brought to you by Coming Up Creative, a relationship first boutique creative recruitment agency.
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Meghan Holston (10:48)
Yeah, I'd say, you know, every time we have a policy or we think about a policy, we think about it from precedent setting perspective, but also what is the creative tale? β Or sort of the creative vibe, if you will. Right. So let's just take something that's maybe not policy driven. It's celebrating employee moments. Okay. So we do an anniversary gift and an anniversary moment for every employee when they hit.
every single year annual milestone. And those, the gifts are related to the year that they are essentially graduating into, if you will. β For the four year anniversary, you get a class ring that says small girls and you get a robe. And so it's just thoughtful, creative moments that I think speak to sort of our, our ethos, right? Our, you know, a sense of belonging, a sense of
creativity and whimsy. One of the interesting things, know, we're called all small, small girls PR, right? And we have this meeting called all smalls. There's a lot of puns that you can make with the word small. It's funny. Our founders are below five feet and they said if they knew how long the agency would last, they may have thought of a different name. 15 plus years heading into our 16 year. But we have a,
All Smalls, All Hands meeting. And we have moments in that meeting like our high fives, where you can anonymously shout someone out.
you know, it's read by read by an operations lead. And so those are the sort of like moments that we have throughout that are given sort of a creative lens, if that makes sense. have something called a Wow Wednesday, which is sort of just like our midweek newsletter. But in the top of it is an incredibly irreverent like this this past week's was an ode to Liberace because it was Liberace's birthday, right? So it's just sort of the creative moments that show up throughout and they can show up in sort of the operational aspect of an agency as
well. That's the part of the belonging, I think, that creates the stickiness and the retention, especially for us.
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Justin Levinson (12:54)
Yeah, that's wonderful. And you said the other part is like talent, you do a lot of talent. So you're hiring and kind of managing all of that. What are you specifically like looking for in people when they come to you?
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Meghan Holston (13:06)
Yeah, I will say that's another creative idea. And actually this idea got us on the Today Show. I mentioned on the Today Show. So when we looked at what the qualities we were looking for, we really are looking for creative people.
creative, disciplined people, right? You need to be able to have the business acumen, but you also need to have the creativity. In order to elicit that, doesn't, the creativity doesn't always come out in the moment, right? So we assign people, if they get past the first or second stage, a creative assignment. And we pay people for that creative assignment at a certain level, because the, that's what got us mentioned on the Today Show, that we're thoughtful about the higher levels that you're interviewing for require more effort.
to interview for and the creative assignment that we're asking for a certain level above to do requires more time and effort. And so we pay you a stipend in order to do that. That sort of like thoughtfulness meets creativity, I think is the philosophy that I bring to the operational side. But what we're also looking for is just people who can thrive in a creative environment. We're not the traditional agency in that we are.
Every agency is going to tell you that they're very fast paced. So are we. But I think that the creative process and the creative muscle that we're going to ask you to use on a daily constant basis is not for everyone. And so we're looking for people who can turn, it can also turn the creativity into a business solution. That's the other part of the. A skillset that you need to have is that's great that you can think of the ideas, but a, how do you be, how do you operationalize the idea and how do you.
operationalize the idea that actually breaks through and actually hits the cultural viral moment. So yeah, we're looking for smart, creative people.
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Justin Levinson (14:58)
Yeah. Well, I love that you guys are compensating folks for their, for the projects that they're doing. Yeah. Because I always encouraged like, cause we do a lot of creative recruiting and our firm coming up creative. yeah, it's amazing that like a lot of, you know, people feel that maybe they're doing work for free or that maybe they're actually, you know, that maybe it's, you know, it's a real project. It's a real campaign that they're giving their creative ideas for and not getting compensated for.
There's some suspicion that can come around, you know, candidates. So the fact that you guys are like getting ahead of that with those senior level people, I think that really makes a big difference.
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Meghan Holston (15:34)
It's a great point. actually have also heard that and years ago created a fake company. So it's never, you're never getting it. It's the same assignment for everyone. It's a fake company and it's a fake brief. So it is always, you're never giving us work or you're never giving us ideas that are going to be turned around and put into, not, you're not giving us ideas that we're working on a new business proposal for it.
We're really, I will say it's one of the most ethical agencies I've ever worked for. We're very above board. And I really think that that is, we're also looking for values alignment, From β people who really want to do good work and are good people.
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Justin Levinson (16:11)
Yeah, I love that. And so you guys are in New York, but you also have a presence in LA.
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Meghan Holston (16:17)
Yeah, we do. actually have a, an office that is growing in Los Angeles. So we've always, acquired an agency even before my time. And that's how we got our presence out in Los Angeles, but we're, we're probably about 15 to 17 people strong in Los Angeles and about 65, 75 people in New York. So, β a very good presence. And what's unique about us is that that is a great office footprint to have.
because we have not only sort of traditional press, we also have influencer marketing and we have an incredibly thriving experiential business. And being able to have an outpost for experiential on the West Coast and outpost in New York is perfect for us. That team is jet setting to all parts of the country all the time to put on events for clients. So it's great.
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Justin Levinson (17:08)
love that. Those definitely feel like the hubs for all that stuff. Experiential PR influencer. good that you guys have both coasts. What's your favorite? What's your favorite part of the gig? What do you like doing the most in your job?
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Meghan Holston (17:21)
actually love the opportunity to build something new. So if there's ever a sort of like a deficiency, right? Like there's a skillset that, you know, the team leaders are saying that we probably need to double click on. I love being able to either tap my network or figure out who the right facilitators are or what the right program is going to be, or it's solving a complex HR issue or solving a complex operational issue.
I think one of the most interesting parts of my role in the past two years has been going through the acquisition process. We were acquired in October of 2024 by Orchestra, who are really excited by, and we've really integrated with them over the past year. And it's really such an exciting time to be able to have the infrastructure that you wished you had as a smaller independent agency. You you wish when you hear on a client call, they are talking about an issue that they have.
as an independent agency, you're like, would love to be able to jump in and say, we have a paid media specialist or we have this, we can actually do that now. And so we're solving, it's very, β it's sort of like heartwarming to be able to solve a client's problems, right? When you know that you have the solution to, it's like the key unlocking.
And being able to do that with Orchestra has been sort of game-changing for a lot of our clients. We're able to come to the table with not just the creative ideas, not just the sort of like event add-on. It's really allowed us to step into a new opportunity with clients.
be able to take on clients that we never were able to take on before. that, them providing that infrastructure, them being able to say, yes, we have an entire public affairs, we all operate as one. And so if a client is having a crisis or has a public affairs moment, we're able to tap our colleagues to be able to step right in with that solution. So it is really sort of like the 360 that I think we were always searching for, but never, it always knew we couldn't offer that.
in that we did not do that well, right? We didn't do public affairs, right? We did it, we did it, you know, a moment here or there, but being able to step in with that has been, I think, really game changing for a lot of people and very satisfying.
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Justin Levinson (19:31)
Yeah, that sounds amazing to have that access, all that ecosystem, be able to meet all your clients demands. You can't ask for anything better than that. Yeah, that's pretty cool. so you are not doing, you used to do more new business in the past, but that's not something that you do as much now. It's not your, your part. Do you miss ever doing that part? Do you miss the new business?
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Meghan Holston (19:50)
A little bit, a little bit. I think the interesting thing, know, new business is scary for a lot of junior staff to work on because they're sort of like lights, camera, action. But when you run new business and you do new β business development, what I found really rewarding about it was you understood the agency from a very different perspective, right? So if you're in charge of new business development, you're A, seeing the deficiencies, right? We don't do X and that's what we're getting.
beat by with other agencies that can bring that capability to the table. And so A, do we build it? Do we acquire it? Do we just say we don't do it? Right. But also looking at the skills of the employees, like presentation skills. And I think you just really understand the fundamentals about the business when you work on new business development. You also really learn how to take feedback. Right. There's no other, sometimes client feedback.
comes up when you're asking for it in the regular sort of account management day to day. And you do client surveys and you get feedback and you take that in and you tool around with that and then you adjust. But I think sharing feedback on a constant basis from pitches that you didn't win or actually pitches that you did win about why you stood out, I think that also really kicks, it kickstarted the sort of marketing aspect that I also support on the small girl side.
What am I hearing from clients about why we won? What am I hearing why we didn't win? And what are the competitors differentiating value? How can we differentiate ourselves? So I think that that is, you learn so much about the business. I almost feel like it's like when you're a doctor and you go through the different rotations, everyone should do a new business rotation so that they can understand the true mechanics of new business. Like I used to be able to go into an RFP and think immediately.
I don't know that we should be in this RFP. I don't think we're going to win. I'm looking around the room and based on that several years of knowledge of running new business, I don't think this was worth our resources. So it really, you really do understand sort of the business mechanics of the agency model when you work in new business. And I think that, I think everyone should do a rotation in it, if you will.
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Justin Levinson (22:01)
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. β As far as, guess, you know, in operations across every part of an agency, technology has really changed a lot. Curious what types of tools you guys are using to sort of for organizational purposes, workflow, anything that's kind of been making your life easier?
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Meghan Holston (22:11)
Yes, yes.
Yeah, well, I think we are ahead of the agency curve from what I've heard. I sit in on all the PR council meetings and so I listen to what other agencies are doing, what questions they're asking. We have really, at the insistence of our president, have really been working with AI for the better part of two years now. And that has been game changing for employee efficiency. And also I think making our work better.
Pressure testing things with enterprise chat GPT, example, building GPTs that are going to improve our workflows, I think really is set us apart. We're also working with all kinds of AI related tools, note takers, Asana project management. As we continue to grow, are...
realizing that project management is becoming, you when you work on an integrated account, experiential, influencer marketing, all of these different scopes all have to work together. And so project management and finding that right tool has been a project that not only we have been going through, but also orchestra at the, the β hold co-level, if you will. But yeah, I'd say all of the AI tools. think one of the things that we really love is, is letting people explore and letting people innovate with whatever tools they.
within an ethical guideline, they have to be approved and make sure that they're not learning on sensitive client language. We send everyone through AI training. They have to sign an acknowledgement and we abide by a code of ethics in terms of using AI tools. But those have really, I would say are game-changing to our workflows and the way that we work with each other and the amount that we're able to accomplish and not spend time on some of the smaller tasks that are so admin heavy and such a burden for the admin side.
really allows us to be more creative and put more time and effort into the brainstorming process. And so, yeah, I think we're using every AI tool out there for sure.
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Justin Levinson (24:17)
That's cool. And in terms of like collaboration, are folks coming into the office full-time or hybrid or how does that work?
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Meghan Holston (24:23)
Yeah, we're a hybrid agency. β are typically in the office to sometimes people are in two to three days, but typically everyone is in at least two days a week. And those days are scheduled with your team. That's one of the things that, and we, we brought people back, I believe in 2022 is when we returned to office, if you will, if you put a moniker around it. And we thought, thought, we thought meaningfully about what that process would look like.
If you are coming in on your own schedule, not with your teams, and then you end up in a phone booth or a conference room on a call in the office with your teams, that seems to defeat the purpose of coming into the office. So we scheduled people, gave everyone a schedule. It rotates every four months or so, so that you get a little bit of different variety. Sometimes you're in on a Tuesday or Wednesday, Wednesday, Thursday, the schedule changes.
but you're in with your teams. And that's really to encourage collaboration. We also switch up the teams that are in the office at the same times that you're getting a variety of other colleagues that you can sort of turn around to and ask a question to. And people love it. I will say we've gotten such great feedback, especially from Gen Z and especially from our junior staff who really, whether they missed out on that face-to-face time during their college experience because that overlaps with COVID.
or they're just hungry for the in-office experience and sort of an IRL experience, that has been wonderful and gotten a lot of great feedback about it.
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Justin Levinson (25:53)
Love it. Cool. Yeah. Seems like that sort of step model seems like it's pretty consistent with, β you know, with other agencies that it seems like it's kind of the secret sauce now is kind of a mix of both. So yeah, outside of, β you know, doing the, this, β this job and, and with this, agency that you love, what are some things that you like to do just outside of work?
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Meghan Holston (26:15)
Yeah, I love to travel. have a goal of getting at least one international trip under my belt every year. And this year it is Japan. So I'm very excited to head to Japan for two weeks in May. Cool. I studied abroad in college and that's really like the travel bug hit me then. I think I added 14 past stamps to my passport that summer and that year when I was studying abroad. So travel in general, I think it's just a way that also did that's my way to disconnect.
It is hard, I think, when you work at an agency, just the agency model, not just small girls. You are constantly, and in PR, right? Like I try to explain to people who are outside of PR, like, the news cycle is 24 seven. So therefore we are constantly plugged into the 24 seven news cycle. That doesn't stop. That's the aspect that doesn't, that doesn't, different from other corporate jobs where you might be able to turn off the email and sort of everyone goes and does their thing.
The news is still on and the news is still affecting our clients. And so you do sort of have to be that always on model. And I've really, I recently got back into reading. I took a break from reading books. I was reading. Substacks and listening to podcasts and I have returned to the, the hard copy, hardcover book. And so that's also a moment for me, just where I can disconnect and take some time, even if it's reading sort of a business book.
the ability to sort of like turn the page and just be with your own thoughts and reading it. I think it's like a different experience than reading any other kind of written word, if you will.
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Justin Levinson (27:47)
I've been getting back into that too, actually. I'm a person that has struggled with sleep for a lot of years. So I recently did this sleep therapy, I'm forgetting what the acronym is, what it stands for. But essentially, you're changing your habits of watching TV in bed while you're changing the habits of...
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Meghan Holston (27:54)
Uh-huh.
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Justin Levinson (28:14)
what time you go to bed. And I guess the overall theme is that you're consolidating your sleep. So like, let's say you can't typically fall asleep till midnight and you're tossing and turning. Well, now your bedtime is at midnight. You're staying out of your bed. You're doing things like reading books and dim light and kind of like, or meditating or doing things that are sort of going to be more relaxing. And then when you're really, really tired, then you go, you go to sleep and you try to kind of, you know, you adjust to sleep. let's say you're going to bed at midnight and then you're falling right to sleep. You're not a good night's sleep.
Then the next week you go to 1145, you move to 1130. CBT-1, that's the name of therapy. I know this is little off.
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Meghan Holston (28:50)
No, love that. It's... sleep hygiene. Yeah. β
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Justin Levinson (28:52)
Yeah. And
even if it's like a business book or something different, if you're just kind of like in your hand and you're reading it and yeah, it does kind of make me a little bit, you know, I get tired a little faster. Yeah. Yeah. But it also like stimulates your imagination and like other ways that I feel like when it's always just visual, you're just like, you know, it's just, it's a different way of learning. I, you know, I've been really enjoying it too. Um, so that's cool.
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Meghan Holston (29:18)
That's awesome. I, CPT, I'm going to look that up because I also have a trouble falling asleep.
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Justin Levinson (29:24)
It's a super helpful thing. think you can download apps for it, I had a guy that... Love that. A therapist kind of coaches you through it a little bit and kind of gives you some tips and changing your habits. And when you're taking your caffeine and when you're exercising, it's a little bit like, you know, it's very structured. It's discipline to do it. But it also is, it is kind of creative because then you kind of realize what things are working and what things aren't.
And there's nothing worse than having that night's sleep where you're like, my God, if I don't sleep tomorrow, what's gonna happen? if I don't sleep tonight, what's gonna happen tomorrow? Like you get into that spin where you're just like, my God. β
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Meghan Holston (30:00)
You have to calm the calm the racing thoughts.
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Justin Levinson (30:02)
Yeah, I'm definitely the kind of person that can just go full speed all day. not like, work harder than anyone in the room, but when it comes to the nighttime, when it's time to turn it all off, that's when I'm like, β my God, like someday I'm going to die. You what I mean? You start like, going like, my God, what is that all about? Or like, know, whatever thought you should not be thinking about right when you close your eyes. My brain has a tendency to just go to that. Take sort of a worst case scenario. And it's like those things, you know,
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Meghan Holston (30:27)
know that.
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Justin Levinson (30:32)
crazy thing is, is those worst case scenarios, it's like, even if they happen, you'd probably be able to handle them better than you think you would anyway. So it's no use in that panic button. Cool. Well, I went on the tangent there, but I do appreciate you being on here, Megan, and offering value to community and telling us about, β you know, all the stuff you guys are doing at β Small Girls PR. And yeah, I would love to keep the conversation going in the future and have you on again sometime. We'd love that. We really want to thank you for being here today and speaking to us.
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Meghan Holston (31:01)
I'll have to regale you with some of my tales of being a personal publicist. That was a wild time in my career. I really appreciate you having me.
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Justin Levinson (31:09)
Thanks Megan. right. Have a great rest of day.
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Meghan Holston (31:11)
Thanks so much. Bye. Bye.
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Justin Levinson (31:14)
Okay.
Agency Side host and the creative matchmaker extraordinaire at Coming Up Creative. Connecting top talent with leading agencies by day, uncovering industry secrets by night (well, whenever we record).