Case study · Business community

The HoLT: everything we've added to a community that already worked.

Lea Turner's HoLT is around five hundred freelancers and small business owners. We never moved the community. Ten pieces so far, each at its own address beside it, and one CRM underneath.

Piece: BarryBot
What it does: Has read all 196 courses in the library. Ask it anything and it tells you which masterclass covers it and where to watch. It points you to the masterclass and leaves the advice to the people who gave it.
Who uses it: Members
Lives at: Inside the HoLT, for members
Since: August 2026

BarryBot's page on the HoLT hub: Barry in a pink BarryBot T-shirt, and the line 'Ask him what to watch. He'll tell you where to find it.'

I love working with Lea. What's amazing is that we get to use technology to help and enhance her business. Lea has great ideas, and we implement them together.

When the core of a business is this pure and its values are this right, it makes our job easier. We're amplifying something that's already there.

Bertie Cordingley, founder, NotLuck

~500members in the community

213vetted businesses in the Directory

132member discounts, all searchable

196courses BarryBot has read

For members

What members use

The HoLT Directory: 'Trusted professionals. Definitely no knobs.' with a search box for 213 HoLTies. Shown on a laptop and a phone.

Piece: The Directory
What it does: A public list of vetted HoLT businesses. Search by what you need, then call, message or visit them. Members edit their own listing from a link in their inbox, and Lea approves new ones from Pulse.
Who uses it: Anyone looking to hire, and every member listed
Lives at: hub.the-holt.com/directory
Since: August 2026

The HoLT Discount Directory: 'Lovely offers. From brilliant HoLTies.' with 132 offers to search. Shown on a laptop and a phone.

Piece: Discounts
What it does: 132 member offers, moved out of a Notion page into a directory people can search. Members add their own, and a cancelled membership takes that member's offers down.
Who uses it: Members, and anyone shopping with them
Lives at: Inside the HoLT, for members
Since: July 2026

Backdoor Barry: 'So you've got a friend who wants in, huh?' Shown on a laptop and a phone.

Piece: Backdoor Barry
What it does: The referral engine. A member puts a friend forward, Barry checks the member is current and sends the friend their invite on his own. Five successful referrals and Lea posts about you to her LinkedIn following.
Who uses it: Members bringing in friends
Lives at: Inside the HoLT, for members
Since: October 2026

Member masterclass booking: 'Hello you wonderful human!' Shown on a laptop and a phone.

Piece: Masterclass bookings
What it does: Members apply to host a masterclass and book their slot. Each booking lands in the CRM with a calendar slot and a Zoom link, and emails go out as the application moves stage.
Who uses it: Members sharing what they know, and Lea reviewing
Lives at: Inside the HoLT, for members
Since: August 2026

For Lea's team

The screen that runs it

Pulse, Lea's community dashboard, showing active members, new joiners, upcoming events and members who have gone quiet. Figures blurred.

Piece: Pulse
What it does: One screen for the community: who joined, who has gone quiet, what is on this week, and the directory listings waiting for approval.
Who uses it: Lea and her team
Lives at: Behind Lea's login
Since: July 2026

Figures blurred. They're Lea's.

The HoLT tent at Ideas Fest 2026, packed with members round pink and yellow tables. — The HoLT tent at Ideas Fest, September 2026. The treasure hunt, the photo wall and the big screen all ran from here.

Events and growth

The fun bits, and the new faces

Piece: The sweepstake
What it does: A World Cup draw for the whole community: password gate, instant draws, a live leaderboard. Brief to launch in an afternoon, then a product anyone can run.
Who uses it: Every member who wanted a team
Lives at: Behind a members' password
Since: June 2026

The Great HoLT Human Treasure Hunt on a phone, over a drone shot of the HoLT tent at Ideas Fest.

Piece: Treasure hunt
What it does: Twenty humans to find across Ideas Fest, played on your phone. Every entrant lands in the CRM, and hunt photos hit the tent's big screen seconds after they were taken.
Who uses it: Festival-goers at the HoLT tent
Lives at: The HoLT tent, Ideas Fest 2026
Since: September 2026

The HoLT Business Survival Guide page: 'Surviving your first year in business', instant download.

Piece: Survival Guide
What it does: Lea and Laura's guide to the first year in business, given its own page on the new site with an instant download, built to bring new people to the community.
Who uses it: New business owners finding The HoLT
Lives at: the-holt.com/survival-guide
Since: October 2026

The bits nobody sees

BarryBot sends every new member a welcome message.
New members land in Lea's phone contacts, so she knows who is calling or messaging.
Cancelling a membership takes the directory listing and the discounts down on its own.
Every form on the hub is tested before a release, to catch problems before a member does.
Lea can see who joins from which page on the new site.
Every member's data sits in one CRM, cleaned up when it moved over from the old one.

The last piece was the front door.

Same homepage. Two builds.

Page weight measured on a phone, scrolled to the bottom with the cache off: the old site on 3 October 2026, the new one live on 10 October. The race shows the size, not a timed load.

The new build loading

The rebuilt HoLT homepage: 'Working for yourself doesn't have to mean working by yourself.'

0.0 MB0 of 62 requests

The old site loading

The previous HoLT homepage on its old platform, with the same headline.

0.0 MB0 of 388 requests

Your scroll is the download. Keep going.

The new one finished before you started.

The old one is still loading. Phones on 4G pay for this.

133.5 MB against 2.6 MB. About fifty times lighter.

The rebuilt HoLT homepage at full width.

Piece: The front door
What it does: The whole of the-holt.com, rebuilt: 13 pages and 33 blog posts moved, every old address redirected, and a builder Lea's team can edit themselves.
Who uses it: Everyone who has not joined yet
Lives at: the-holt.com
Since: October 2026

A word from Bertie

Highly recommend this community, by the way. Obviously I'm biased. If the doors are closed, I might have a secret way in for you. Me and Baz are best mates.

Join the HoLT

Piece: Yours
What it does: The thing your members keep asking for
Who uses it: Your community, without moving it anywhere
Lives at: Its own address, beside what already works
Starts with: A 20-minute call

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