170 avsnitt • Längd: 45 min • Veckovis: Tisdag
Andrew Faris has been growing ecommerce brands since 2014 as everything from a media buyer to the head of strategy at Common Thread Collective to the CEO of 4×400, a DTC aggregator. Join him every week to learn the nuts & bolts of how to grow ecommerce brands, always shared with refreshing candor.
The podcast The Andrew Faris Podcast is created by Andrew Faris. The podcast and the artwork on this page are embedded on this page using the public podcast feed (RSS).
MORE STAFFING
Recruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af.
INTELLIGEMSIntelligems is the ultimate profit-optimization tool for DTC brands. Use it for all of your CRO efforts by visiting https://intelligems.io.//Isaac Mertens is the Co-Founder & CEO of Flux Footwear, a mid-8-figure footwear brand running at a 15-20% profit margin. Reach out to Isaac via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaac-mertens-5b107964/.//CHAPTER TITLES:
00:58 Sec - Origin of Flux Footware
5:48 - What Products Launched Flux Footware
10:00 - Google Trends
14:50 - Self Financing & Profit Growth
23:28 - Building Customer Loyalty
36:34 - Levers of Impacts In Your Business
44:40 - Ad Creation & Content
//SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL FOR 2X WEEKLY UPLOADS!FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
MOVE SUPPLY CHAIN
Pay less for COGS, get shorter lead times, and improve payment terms in your supply chain with help from Move Supply Chain at https://movesupplychain.com.
INTELLIGEMS
Intelligems is the ultimate profit-optimization tool for DTC brands. Use it for all of your CRO efforts by visiting https://intelligems.io.//Referenced Links for other videos:https://open.spotify.com/episode/3CQFzGTJpQMhduEnge301d?si=p1_rGgVXSfCc1W1KBh8VWg
https://open.spotify.com/episode/40jKOgLXxRmxCYeWtHpbYZ?si=OSh1rjKgR_eAxxU1GBFi3w//CHAPTER MARKERS:1:37: Who Is Ben Perkins and &Collar
4:15: How Slow Growth Became Profitable
10:00: Climbing Out Of Debt
29:07: Digital Ad Spend
35:10: Supply Chain & Manufacturing
46:37: The Future of &Collar//SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL FOR 2X WEEKLY UPLOADS!FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
BEHIND THE SCENES STUDIO
Work with the same Meta Ads creative production team that Andrew does with Behind The Scenes Studio, a More Staffing sister company: https://www.behindthescenes.studio/.
ADMISSION
Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://www.youradmission.co/andrew-faris-podcast//
Referenced Video Links for other videos:https://open.spotify.com/episode/0BOKQLVvmP0hnoPq1M0m0P?si=Zekr_FFdTqGPG830CHZg4Q
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0siAjFV5WfEui8eXxOdikJ?si=y5vvyL_1QPSjeSUQB-9Wew
//
CHAPTER MARKERS:
00.38: Work Around For Meta Ad Limits
6:09: Diversify Ad Formats
13:44: Ad Creatives & Quality For Meta
21:45: Testing Ads & Investing In High Performing Creatives
//
SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL FOR 2X WEEKLY UPLOADS!FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
MOVE SUPPLY CHAIN
Pay less for COGS, get shorter lead times, and improve payment terms in your supply chain with help from Move Supply Chain at https://movesupplychain.com.
INTELLIGEMS
Intelligems is the ultimate profit-optimization tool for DTC brands. Use it for all of your CRO efforts by visiting https://intelligems.io.
//SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL FOR 2X WEEKLY UPLOADS!FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
FERMATCreate funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting https://fermatcommerce.com/afADMISSIONGet the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://www.youradmission.co/andrew-faris-podcast//SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL FOR WEEKLY UPLOADS!FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
MORE STAFFINGRecruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af. ADMISSIONGet the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://www.youradmission.co/andrew-faris-podcast//SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL FOR 2X WEEKLY UPLOADS!FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
MORE STAFFINGRecruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af. INTELLIGEMSIntelligems is the ultimate profit-optimization tool for DTC brands. Use it for all of your CRO efforts by visiting https://intelligems.io.// Kelcey Lehrich is the co-founder and CEO of 365 Holdings, an ecommerce holding company with 6 brands currently in their portfolio. Follow Kelcey on X at https://x.com/kelceylehrich or contact him at [email protected] if you're interested in selling him a brand. //SUBSCRIBE TO MY PODCAST!FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
FERMATCreate funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting https://fermatcommerce.com/af// Chris Kresser is a world-renowned functional health expert, NYT best-selling author, and the founder of Adapt Naturals, an 8-figure supplement brand and client of mine. Learn more about Adapt Naturals at https://www.adaptnaturals.com.//SUBSCRIBE TO MY PODCAST!FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
Check out the episode with Olivia here
//
FERMATCreate funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting https://fermatcommerce.com/afBILYGet enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai.// SUBSCRIBE TO MY PODCAST!FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
BILYGet enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai.INTELLIGEMSIntelligems is the ultimate profit-optimization tool for DTC brands. Use it for all of your CRO efforts by visiting https://intelligems.io. //SUBSCRIBE TO MY PODCAST!FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
MORE STAFFINGRecruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af. FERMATCreate funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting https://fermatcommerce.com/afAdMissionGet the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip// Olivia Kory is the Head Of Strategy at Haus Analytics. You can work with Haus by visiting www.haus.io. Follow Olivia on X at https://x.com/oliviaakory and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-kory-50230812/.//SUBSCRIBE TO MY PODCAST!FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
MOVE SUPPLY CHAIN
Pay less for COGS, get shorter lead times, and improve payment terms in your supply chain with help from Move Supply Chain at https://movesupplychain.com.
BILY
Get enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai.
Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip
//
Sean Christman is the VP of Operations at Cuts Clothing, a DTC apparel business doing over $50M in annual revenue. Follow Sean on X at https://x.com/seanchrstman. Book consulting time with him on MentorPass at https://mentorpass.co/me/seanchristman.
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW
Email: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
BILYGet enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai.ADMISSIONGet the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip //SUBSCRIBE TO MY PODCAST!FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
BILY
Get enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai.
AdMissionGet the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip //SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL!FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
MORE STAFFING
Recruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af.
INTELLIGEMS
Intelligems is the ultimate profit-optimization tool for DTC brands. Use it for all of your CRO efforts by visiting https://intelligems.io.//
Jeremiah Prummer is the CEO of KnoCommerce (https://knocommerce.com/) and Stamped.io (https://stamped.io/).
Follow Jeremiah on X at @JeremiahPrummer (https://x.com/jeremiahprummer) and on LinkedIn at https://linkedin.com/JeremiahPrummer.
Subscribe to the DTC Confidence Index at https://www.dtcindex.com/.
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris
Email: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
BEHIND THE SCENES STUDIOWork with the same Meta Ads creative production team that Andrew does with Behind The Scenes Studio, a More Staffing sister company: https://www.behindthescenes.studio/.INTELLIGEMSIntelligems is the ultimate profit-optimization tool for DTC brands. Use it for all of your CRO efforts by visitinghttps://intelligems.io.//Jess Bachman is the Creative Strategy Director at FireTeam, a performance creative agency for DTC Brands. Work with FireTeam by visitinghttps://fireteam.is.Follow Jess on X athttps://x.com/hirefireteam.See Jess's last appearance on my show here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwDIG9s5b_c//SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL!FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfarisEmail: [email protected] with Andrew:https://ajfgrowth.com
BILY
Get enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visitinghttps://bily.ai.
ADMISSION
Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here:https://bit.ly/3x99lip
//SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL!FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfarisEmail: [email protected] with Andrew:https://ajfgrowth.com
Lara Guevara is the CEO of More Staffing. Gregg Carey is the Co-Founder of More Staffing and the CEO of Section 119. If you want to work with More Staffing, go to morestaffing.co/af to get a conversation started.
//
SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL!
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW
X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris
Email: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
MOVE SUPPLY CHAIN
Pay less for COGS, get shorter lead times, and improve payment terms in your supply chain with help from Move Supply Chain at https://movesupplychain.com.
ADMISSION Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL! FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
INTELLIGEMS
Get 20% off your first 3 months of the ultimate profit-optimization tool for DTC brands with the code FARIS20 here at https://intelligems.io/andrew-faris-podcast
BILY
Get enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai.
//
Barry Hott is the creator of Building Ads With Barry, a live cohort-based performance creative course launching February 3rd, 2025. Sign up for Building Ads With Barry at www.buildingadswithbarry.com
//
Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip
//
SUBSCRIBE TO MY PODCAST!
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW
X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris
Email: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
MORE STAFFING
Recruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af INTELLIGEMS
Get 20% off your first 3 months of the ultimate profit-optimization tool for DTC brands with the code FARIS20 here at https://intelligems.io/andrew-faris-podcast // Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // SUBSCRIBE TO MY PODCAST! FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
MORE STAFFING
Recruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af
BILY
Get enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai // Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // SUBSCRIBE TO MY PODCAST! FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
INTELLIGEMS
Get 20% off your first 3 months of the ultimate profit-optimization tool for DTC brands with the code FARIS20 here at https://intelligems.io/andrew-faris-podcast
FERMAT
Create funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting https://fermatcommerce.com/af // Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // SUBSCRIBE TO MY PODCAST! FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
FERMAT Create funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting https://fermatcommerce.com/af BILY Get enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai // Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // SUBSCRIBE TO MY PODCAST! FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
MORE STAFFING
Recruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af. INTELLIGEMS
Get 20% off your first 3 months of the ultimate profit-optimization tool for DTC brands with the code FARIS20 here at https://intelligems.io/andrew-faris-podcast. // Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // SUBSCRIBE TO MY PODCAST! FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
FERMAT Create funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting https://fermatcommerce.com/af BEHIND THE SCENES STUDIO Work with the same Meta Ads creative production team that Andrew does with Behind The Scenes Studio, a More Staffing sister company: https://www.behindthescenes.studio/ //
Episodes referenced:
Creative Strategy That Powers Meta Ads at Scale
//
Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL! FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
MORE STAFFING Recruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af. BILY Get enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai. // Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL: @andrewfarispodcast FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
MORE STAFFINGRecruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af.
FERMAT Create funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting https://fermatcommerce.com/af // Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL!
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
FERMAT Create funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting https://fermatcommerce.com/af
// Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL! FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
BILY Get enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai. MOVE SUPPLY CHAIN Pay less for COGS, get shorter lead times, and improve payment terms in your supply chain with help from Move Supply Chain at https://movesupplychain.com.
//
To get the Unit Economics Calculator with the Delayed Purchase Multiplier calculator that I showed in this episode, sign up for my email list at https://ajfgrowth.com.
The dynamic UTM string to add to your ads is: utm_source=meta&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign={{campaign.name}}&utm_term={{adset.name}}&utm_content={{ad.name}}&fbadid={{ad.id}}
// Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL! FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
FERMAT Create funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting https://fermatcommerce.com/af MORE STAFFING Recruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af. // Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL! FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
BILY Get enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai. // Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // SUBSCRIBE TO THIS PODCAST FOR WEEKLY CONTENT! FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
Lara Guevara is the CEO of More Staffing and its sister company, Move Supply Chain. Reach out to More Staffing https://morestaffing.co/af/ and Move Supply Chain at https://movesupplychain.com/
Follow Lara on X at https://x.com/supplychainlara // SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL!
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
MORE STAFFING
Recruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af.
//
FOLLOW UP WITH MEHTAB
• Follow Mehtab On X: https://x.com/MehtabKarta
• Contact Karta Ventures: https://www.kartaventures.com/
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SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL!
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW
X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris
Email: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com//
//
Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip
FERMAT Create funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting https://fermatcommerce.com/af MORE STAFFING Recruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af. // Paul Jauregui is the cofounder of BK Beauty Follow Paul on X at @pauljauregui. Follow Paul on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/myover/ // SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL! FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
Recruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af. Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // Taylor Holiday is the founder and CEO of Common Thread Collective. Follow Taylor On X: @taylorholiday Work With Common Thread Collective: www.commonthreadco.com // SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL! // FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
BILYGet enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai. FERMATCreate funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting https://fermatcommerce.com/af
SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST!
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ABOUT MY GUEST Jordan West is the CEO and Founder of Upgrowth Commerce, a social commerce agency based in Vancouver, CA.
Work With Jordan at upgrowthcommerce.com
Follow Jordan On X: @jordantwestecom
Secrets To Scaling Your Ecommerce Brand: https://open.spotify.com/show/0T5nt6pLvgmP5Rr2tzAwLv?si=ed236d4e8f0e47df
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW
X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris
Email: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
//
Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip
BILY Get enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai. MORE STAFFING Recruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af. //
FOLLOW UP WITH ALEX:
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com // Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip
BILY
Get enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai
ABOUT MY GUEST
Taylor Lagace is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Kynship, a full service growth marketing agency.
Follow Taylor On X: @taylorlagace Work With Kynship: www.kynship.co
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW
Follow Andrew On X: @andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com // Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip
IMPORTANT NOTE: I put together a Notion Card with an updated version of the document I shared in this video, including links to examples of different creative formats. You can access it free here: https://bit.ly/3ADsNWA
As promised, get 50% off the first month of CreativeOS + a free 3-day trial: https://www.creativeos.com/creative-os-faris FERMAT Create funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting https://fermatcommerce.com/af BEHIND THE SCENES STUDIO Work with the same Meta Ads creative production team that Andrew does with Behind The Scenes Studio, a More Staffing sister company: https://www.behindthescenes.studio/.
Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: @andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: ajfgrowth.com
BILY Get enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai. // Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL: @andrewfarispodcast FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com #metaads #facebookads #ecommerce #advertising
BILY Get enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai. SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL: @andrewfarispodcast // Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com #metaads #facebookads #ecommerce #advertising
SPONSORS
Create funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting https://fermatcommerce.com/af
Recruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af.
Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip
//
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW
SPONSORS
Create funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting https://fermatcommerce.com/af
Recruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines with my friends at More Staffing by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af.
Get the best media buying training on the Internet + a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip
//
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Rabah Rahil is the CMO at FERMAT. Follow him on X at @rabahrahil.
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Get enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai. Get the best media buying coaching on the Internet + when a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission: https://www.youradmission.co/andrew-faris-podcast
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Recruit, onboard, and train incredible virtual professionals in the Philippines by visiting morestaffing.co/af.
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Pay less for COGS, get shorter lead times, and improve payment terms in your supply chain with help from Move Supply Chain at movesupplychain.com.
Create funnels the same way you create ads with FERMAT by visiting fermatcommerce.com/af.
Get the best media buying training on the Internet with ADmission from Common Thread Collective by visiting www.youradmission.co/andrew-faris-podcast.
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Get enhanced Meta Ads event tracking on your store with 100% server side tracking at the lowest rate in all of ecom with Bily by visiting https://bily.ai. Get the best media buying coaching on the Internet + when a free coaching call with Common Thread Collective's media buyers when you sign up for ADmission here: https://bit.ly/3x99lip // FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewjfaris Email: [email protected] Work with Andrew: https://ajfgrowth.com
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Jacob Posel is a Senior Software Engineer at Common Thread Collective. Follow him on X at @dtcjacob.
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In the 30 days leading up to me recording this episode, my team made 2,358 still image ads and 1,063 video ads for my 5 clients.
That's a level of output we've been building towards for a long time, and in this episode I'm breaking down why and how we build so much creative, what I'm learning about the process, and how I intend to keep making it better (in both quality and quantity).
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Think big tech companies are squeezing money from you while over-reporting results?
You might be right sometimes. But you're probably wrong with Meta. If you're measuring your performance on a click-only basis, your spend is almost definitely creating more value than you think.
In this episode I explain exactly why and how that's true.
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I talk about media buying methodology and the importance of Cost Controls a lot. Some might even say "too much."
But then, over and over and over again, I get access to ad accounts that are blowing huge amounts of money on ads—gigantic, ridiculous, easily-solvable amounts of money.
So I'm not going to shut up about it. Your media buying is a problem, and you need to know it.
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So Shopify Capital (or someone else) offered you $250,000 in exchange for 17% of daily revenue for 90 days. The best part? You can get the money with just a few clicks.
Should you take it?
In one of my most popular episodes ever, Natural Dog Co CEO and former investment banker Bill D'Alessandro said, "Absolutely not. You're paying an absurd APR and these lenders know you don't understand the math."
But Drew Fallon, co-founder and CEO of Iris Financial, says that these are borderline-miraculous products that ecom founders shouldn't take indiscriminately, but should use when they need to.
So I had them on the podcast to fight it out.
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If you want a growing, profitable brand, you have to get noticed. That starts at the brand level and works all the way through your ads.
Lianna Patch is my favorite copywriter around. She's the founder of Punchline Conversion Copywriting, and she's relentlessly good at one thing: she's interesting. Her copy is eye-catching, clear, and above all, funny.
In this episode, I pick Lianna's brain to learn more about how she does it—and how you should do the same.
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AI is revolutionizing the way we make ads. Right?
Yes. Definitely. But I'm sure I'm like many people in that, at least so far, the promise of AI for ad creative is both tantalizing and frustrating.
In this episode I'm registering my initial reflections on trying to use AI to streamline my process for making great ads, including what I think AI is good at, what it's bad at, and what I just can't stand about it.
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There are parts of your process for generating new ad creative that are time-consuming and, therefore, expensive.
Good. That's how it should be. But not for everything.
To build better performing creative in a more cost effective way, you need to understand the differences between which parts should be which.
On this episode of the podcast, I'm explaining exactly how to do that.
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• "Jess Bachman Lights Creative Strategy On Fire" (Apple, Spotify)
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Sarah Levinger spends most of her time thinking about what people REALLY want.
Then she makes ads that talk about that.
Sarah is a Consumer Behavior Strategist, working with DTC brands to think more about what's really motivating their customers, then build their brand and advertising to communicate about those things effectively.
Learn that, she says, and your creative will reach whole new levels of performance.
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Here's one of the most common patterns I see for DTC brands:
They switch to Cost Controlled media buying. Everything goes great at first. Then things slow down and they scramble. Part of the scramble is a return to automated bidding, on the assumption that the Cost Controls are the problem. Performance only gets worse.
Today on the show, I'm talking you through why its so common to step in that trap, and how to avoid it.
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Colab with The Ecommerce Playbook!
Taylor and Andrew do our second Tim Ferris-inspired "Random Show." In this episode, we talk about:
And much more. Enjoy!
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It's my second ever AMA! This time I'm talking about all things creative strategy for your Facebook Ads account. Want to make ads that sell products? Here's how.
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Mehtab Bhogal is obsessed with growing profitable DTC brands.
His team at Karta Ventures own majority stakes in 2 ecommerce brands and minority positions in 8 more. They see a LOT of brands and have big incentives to grow them profitably.
In this episode, Mehtab explains how to negotiate your shipping rates, save big on Google Ad spend without sacrificing growth, how to capture more of the money your customers came to spend by thinking like a hotel, and much, much more.
If you don't pause this episode multiple times to implement what he says, you only have yourself to blame.
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Nate Lagos is one of my favorite thinkers in DTC.
That's because he thinks as well or better than anyone I know about how to do "brand building" in a way that actually generates profit. Put another way, "brand building" doesn't have to = "money burning." At least not for Nate.
On this episode we talk about how Original Grain (where Nate is the CMO) is generating huge growth and profits via brand colabs, working with YouTube creators, and more.
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Am I embracing creative testing campaigns? Am I going all ABO? Am I ditching manual bids?
No. No. And no.
But I've nonetheless made a significant change to my approach to media buying, and so far, it has worked well for every client with whom I work.
Today on the show I explain the best argument against my media buying approach (that no one ever makes) and the change I've made because of it.
This episode is extremely actionable and I hope it helps you as much as it has helped my clients.
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Gregg Carey felt overwhelmed by the number of things he had to do in his 7-figure ecommerce business. Anyone who has been in that phase knows the feeling: there's too much to do, not enough time to do it, and not enough money to hire help.
Except that last part isn't true: Gregg hired Lara Guevara to take over his supply chain from her home in the Philippines, and the result was growth, profit, time, more Filipino employees, and eventually, a Filipino staffing agency that the two co-founded so other DTC businesses could experience the same.
In this sponsored episode, I talk to Gregg and Lara both about their experience working together on Gregg's business (https://section119.com/) and why these relationships work so incredibly well when they're done right.
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Riley Stricklin had a question for me.
He had left his role as CEO of Lume Cube, a mid-8-figure DTC brand that he co-founded and I'd worked on briefly a number of years ago, and was thinking about what he wanted to do next. One idea he had: start an ecom HoldCo and try to spin up multiple new brands.
When he reached out to ask for my input (as a former aggregator CEO myself), I told him, "Let's talk. And how about we record it?" And Riley agreed to it.
Come for the conversation about the good, bad and ugly of DTC aggregators, stay for Riley's insights about the CRO tests that led to 30-40% conversion rate lifts for Lume Cube.
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"Every brand is different. Make sure to test what works for yours."
That's some of the most common advice about how to run an ecommerce business and I think it's deeply misleading and unhelpful.
In this episode of the Andrew Faris Podcast, I make the case that instead of testing everything, you should learn from the collected wisdom of the people who already have.
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WHAT IS OPENING THE BOOKS?
"Opening The Books" is my series of live-recorded coaching calls with brand operators who get my time for free in exchange for recording the call, including showing actual ad accounts and other financial data on the call.
For more info and resources from this episode, visit www.ajfgrowth.com/zollie
EPISODE SUMMARY
Sarah Resnick has been helping crafters and, more specifically, weavers create beautiful custom projects for years. And as she did, she realized something: people need help understanding how color works.
So she spent two years developing a product that can help makers of all kinds get better at making color decisions more effectively without going to the trouble of learning the intricacies of color theory. The product is brilliant: it's a simple deck of cards that takes the customer by the hand through the decision-making process on their projects.
Sarah realized that the product had big potential for one of her brands, Zollie, so she got together with Andrew for a specific request: how can she launch the product as effectively as possible without a monster budget?
So on this Opening The Books, Andrew coached her through the entire process on each of her channels. They talked about how to handle hype emails, building product-specific lists, and how to approach it in her Meta Ads account.
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Where do you need to focus your attention to grow your Meta spend?
Is it in writing new angles? Increasing the volume of ads? Adding influencer content? Better media buying tactics? Or solving attribution?
Well: it depends. Growth with Meta Ads is different depending on which stage your account is. Today, I'm breaking down the 3 stages of account growth so you can think through where to dedicate your resources next.
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I'm amazed at how good some ecommerce businesses are.
Not necessarily the ones you read about or see on social media. They may or may not be good businesses.
I'm thinking instead of businesses that I have seen up close and personally. In these businesses, when operators get crystal clear that bottom line profit is the ultimate driver of the value of their business, they can build SERIOUSLY profitable, valuable businesses.
It sounds so simple: relentlessly pursue profit.
But it's much easier said than done. And today, I'm explaining what I mean by that phrase and how to actually do it.
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Email & SMS are cornerstones of DTC growth marketing, so I brought in one of my most trusted experts on the subject, Joel Biery.
Joel is the founder of KapturBox, an email & SMS agency with whom I've worked on shared clients. So I've seen the quality of his work and can vouch for him: he knows what he's talking about.
On today's episode, we talk about how to use owned channels to drive bigger moments on your marketing calendar and why you're probably not sending enough email but too much SMS.
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Drew Fallon knows what financial mistakes you're making in your DTC business. And he wants you to stop.
From being the CFO & COO of Mad Rabbit Tattoo to launching Iris (a brand new DTC financial data tool), Drew has thought about ecommerce finance from just about every angle.
On this episode of the Andrew Faris Podcast, Drew and I tell you to stop spending ad dollars, start forecasting more carefully, and ultimately, create a more valuable business.
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Everything is going great for a business: your ads are working, scale is happening, and you're seeing huge revenue growth for both new and returning customers.
But you can't figure out why: were the new ads you made THAT much better than the old ones?
Or sometimes it's the opposite: nothing is working, including the ads that were doing great only a few weeks ago. So what's the difference?
More often than you realize, it's seasonality. Today, I explain the point and tell you what to do about it.
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Almost exactly a year ago, Nasrin Jafari recorded my first ever Opening The Books podcast episode. A few months after that, she hired me and my team as her agency.
So how has it gone since that first conversation?
On this episode of The Andrew Faris Podcast, Nasrin is back to talk about the highs, lows, and what she (and I) have learned on the way to doubling her fashion brand's business.
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What's your brand's pathway to profitable growth?
Well, that depends: what type of brand do you have?
If you understand the answer to that question, you can focus on the highest leverage areas of your business for creating profitable growth.
Today on the show, I'm breaking down 5 categories of DTC brands and telling you how to approach growth in each.
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If you want your DTC brand to grow profitably, it can't JUST be about steadily improving your ads, emails, etc.
That's great, but there is a more effective way to spike your revenue quickly, profitably, and in a way that's replicable throughout your brand's journey, and it's by leveraging the marketing calendar effectively.
Today on The Andrew Faris Podcast, I'm telling you exactly how to do just that.
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It's a pod colab! Today on the show, The Ecommerce Playbook and The Andrew Faris Podcast join forces for a longer, wider-ranging, in-person conversation with Common Thread Collective's CEO and DTC super-genius Taylor Holiday.
Among the topics covered:
And much more. Enjoy!
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EPISODE MUSIC
IMPORTANT NOTE
Get every resource mentioned in this episode emailed to you for free by visiting www.ajfgrowth.com/prettyboy
EPISODE SUMMARY
Ben and Kevin are best friends, partners, and the founders of PrettyBoy—a men's personal care brand whose first product is a moisturizer that helped Kevin clear up serious skin issues on his face that started when he was in college, playing football at Ohio State.
They launched with big dreams, but also with ads that were losing them money and an untenable supply chain due to the huge lead time they needed on every order. Classic startup problems.
But in 2023, things started to turn around in the ad account, and they made the leap to profitability.
In this Opening The Books episode, Andrew walks with the guys through the 2023 journey to profitability (with plentiful ad account screensharing so you can see how they did it), then talks them through the next steps as they cross seven figures in 2024 and PrettyBoy goes from side gig to the recipient of their full focus.
Watch this episode if you want to see the effects of great creative, switching to manual bidding, understanding your LTV, and solving your supply chain.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
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It's not just about sales velocity.
What happens if you've got a product that isn't selling much, but you think has potential? Should you put time and money into running ads against it?
Or what about the opposite? What about if you have a high sales velocity product, but it's lower margin and lower LTV? Then what?
In this episode I'm walking you through a 5-part framework on how to think about the next base products for you to put resources into advertising.
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Countless ecommerce operators complain about getting taken for a ride by agencies, freelancers, and software companies.
In this episode I explain the most important thing you need to know to avoid the frustration and costs of having that happen to you—and to scale your business profitably in the long term.
The key? Point of view.
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I've already had Jack Rubin on once before, and that's for a simple reason: he's one of the most impressive DTC operators I've been around, building one of the best DTC businesses I've seen from the inside. So there's lots to share.
In this episode, learn how Jack's relentless focus on his core funnel led him to increase his Meta spend by 500% in the last year while lowering his CAC and growing to a very profitable $50M+ in revenue.
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"Make Ugly Ads."
It's on his hat. It's on his mic. It's on his wall.
Barry Hott isn't afraid to tell you as many times as you need to be told, and it's for a simple reason: he's right. Ugly ads work.
Barry has a lot of years in the ecommerce/DTC/paid social/growth marketing space, and I brought him on this episode ostensibly to discuss the how and why of ugly ads. But for two guys who just love talking shop it was impossible to keep ourselves from delving into all kinds of growth strategy and media buying specifics.
Strap in: Barry brought the energy and this is a fun one. Enjoy it, then go make some ugly ads.
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"Test creative until you have statistically significant results, then scale the winners based on that."
That seems like good advice on first glance. How can you disagree with methodical testing that's attentive to good statistical principles?
Because it's almost impossible to actually do without burning huge amounts of money on Meta, for one, and for two, it's unnecessary anyway, since Meta's machine learning can use better methods of forecasting your creative's performance than frequentist-style stat sig tests.
Yes, this one is getting into the weeds. Hopefully it helps clarify more of why you absolutely positively should not run auto-bid creative testing campaigns on Meta.
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You probably know Beardbrand and its founder, Eric Bandholz.
Beardbrand rose to prominence in the ecommerce landscape as they built a YouTube channel with over a million subscribers, thereby powering their customer acquisition with basically zero investment in paid marketing channels.
But as the impact of their organic efforts began to fade in 2022 and into 2023, Bandholz and his team decided that they needed to crack the code on Meta Ads. The problem? This channel had never been successful for them before.
So when Bandholz reached out to me to see if I could be any help as they handed the keys to a talented but green (as far as paid social is concerned) team member, Mike Lawson, I suggested he come on the podcast and build a plan from the ground-up, complete with screenshares of their actual Meta Ads account.
In this episode, you'll learn exactly how I'd build an ad account almost from the ground-up centering on a consolidated, broad-targeted, Bid Cap strategy, and you'll even get a follow-up a month after our initial recording to see how their efforts were going.
We referenced a lot of resources in this episode. Want access to all of them for free? Sign up for my email list below and I'll send them your way.
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We're taking a break from the tactical, but this episode is no less practical.
Taking a full day completely off of work every week has been one of the most important practices for keeping my relationship to work in its right place in my life while also providing the rest required to perform at work at as high of a level as possible.
In this episode, I explain how the ancient practice of Sabbath has unique power for people like me who love our jobs, and I give practical recommendations on what has made it work for me.
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My last episode with Jones Road Beauty CMO & CRO Cody Plofker is the most popular episode in my podcast's history. Which meant it was time to bring him back.
This is a wide-ranging episode in which Cody and I talk about how to think about Contribution Margin as a dollar amount (instead of just efficiency metrics like MER or aMER), how to forecast a DTC brand effectively, and how to use the concept of a "unique mechanism" in your DTC ad messaging.
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I've always said that the offer is the foremost driver of performance in direct response advertising. But I haven't always aligned my actions with that thought.
But after some recent & massive client wins centering on running the same ads to new offers, I've been reminded of just how crucial it is to get this right.
So in this episode, I'm categorizing defining what I mean by "offer" and categorizing offer type that can move the needle for different kinds of brands.
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A few weeks ago I told you that longform explainer ads are the best performing ads I run in an episode where I went through an overview of the concept and structure of the ads.
But then I thought: "Wait, why don't I just record myself actually writing one of these instead?"
So I got together with my good friend Dave Rekuc, President & COO at Bambu Earth, and we briefed out a longform explainer ad from start to finish to prep for an upcoming shoot of his.
The result is a (long) episode in which we document the entire process of thinking through what makes customers love Bambu Earth and how to communicate that with clarity in an ad.
Important note: we don't know how this ad will perform yet, but once we do, I'll update you. So make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out as we learn how it goes.
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One of the most common pieces of advice I give ecommerce operators is to hunt for savings in their supply chain so that their unit economics can better. Supply chain savings go straight to the bottom line (or open up more room for you to spend on customer acquisition).
It's good advice, but it often isn't actionable, because there is an obvious follow-up question:
How?
Lara Guevara knows the answer, and on this episode of the show, she tells you. We talked about knowing your suppliers' suppliers, negotiating freight forwarding, and thinking intelligently about exchange rates.
It's all doable, and if you don't know where to start, Lara is ready to help.
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What if you could be running ads that pushed your spend up 50% at your target metrics–and they cost you nothing to create? And also, you already made them?
If you're not turning (almost) all of your existing organic content into ads, there's a good chance that's the exact scenario you're in.
Today on the show: a simple but important push to get your organic content into your ad account.
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The first place you should spend your ad dollars as a DTC brand is Meta. The second is Google.
Most people would agree with this comment, but they also see the same problem I do: it's incredibly easy to waste money on Google Ads because of the black box that is Performance Max and the 500 other ways Branded Search clicks inflate ROAS and hide bad dollars.
I know enough about this to have helped some clients stop wasting money in these ways. But I haven't known enough to help clients actually MAKE money there.
Which is where Kirk Williams comes in.
Kirk has been running Google Ads for well over a decade and is now the CEO of ZATO Marketing, a Google Ads agency that does great work.
Tune in for an episode where he explains Google's ad-related legal battles, the best strategies for DTC, and how to make Performance Max
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Fan Bi sees 10 different ecommerce businesses every week and has seen ~1,000 in the last year. That's because Fan's job is to buy DTC brands for The Hedgehog Company, the aggregator where he's the CEO. He's got 4 now and looking to add. The upshot of all that? He has one of the deepest senses of the market for ecommerce brands of anyone I know, and he can tell you very quickly if your business is set up well for an exit. So on this week's episode, Fan and I talked through what makes a good DTC brand and what kind of multiples ecommerce businesses are getting today, all so that you can focus on the right metrics for maximizing the value of yours. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS • [00:02:28] The meaning of life. • [00:05:11] Valuation of e-commerce businesses. • [00:08:09] Impact of investor preference. • [00:10:37] Early-stage valuation and investment. • [00:14:48] Valuing ROI and Exit Strategies. • [00:15:41] Valuing businesses based on EBITDA. • [00:19:32] Changing deal structures in acquisitions. • [00:22:06] Negative CAGR and business volatility. • [00:28:32] E-commerce business challenges. • [00:29:00] Lean operations in e-commerce. • [00:32:07] Revenue quality and valuation. • [00:35:33] Cash conversion and working capital. • [00:39:14] DTC advantages and scalability. • [00:42:31] Unfair advantages in e-commerce. • [00:45:56] Tough time to be selling. • [00:48:24] Building a business for scale and profit. EPISODE SPONSOR Add supply chain experts to your team at a drastically lower cost than you're expecting by hiring More Fractional Supply Chain, a service of my friends at More Staffing. Visit https://morenow.co and use the code AJF20 to get 20% off your first 3 months. PREVIOUS AFP EPISODES REFERENCED • "Patrick Coddou Sold Supply" (Spotify, Apple) • "Dan McCormick Is Taking 'Build In Public' To A Whole New Level" (Spotify, Apple, YouTube) FOLLOW UP WITH FAN • Follow Fan on X: @LifeOfBi • Learn More About The Hedgehog Company: https://www.thehedgehogcompany.com/ FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW
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I'm a huge believer in creative diversity. I've devoted at least one episode to the idea that brands who truly maximize Meta Ads do so by building out the operational processes required to generate creative across a wide range of formats.
And yet:
There is one type of ad that I see that most consistently outperforms the rest of the account. That ad type is the "longform explainer," and if there's one creative strategy that's core to the AJF Growth Meta Ads playbook, it's this.
Today on the show, I unpack what that ad format is and tell you why I think it works so well.
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It's one of the biggest, most remarkable exits I'm aware of in ecommerce: in 2022, Hero Cosmetics sold for $630M.
So in this episode, I brought Hero's co-founder and former CEO, Ju Rhyu, on to the show to talk about how in the world they accomplished such a big outcome, what she's up to now, and whether or not all that money actually made her happy.
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Success!
That was mostly what I felt after BFCM this year, including 3 clients with their biggest revenue days ever.
But that doesn't mean everything was a win this year. And after a couple weeks off to manage the BFCM chaos, I've analyzed the results and collected my top 7 lessons from the biggest week of the year in ecommerce.
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When Cody Plofker and I finished recording this episode, I told him, "That was basically Meta Media Buying 401." And that's exactly what I loved about this episode.
Cody is the CMO at Jones Road Beauty, a beauty brand quickly approaching nine figures in revenue, all of it DTC including three brick-and-mortar locations of its own.
So on this episode, Cody and I didn't hold back. If you're new to media buying, listen to this episode and jot down your questions as you go. If you're more experienced, the goal is for the level of detail to help drive you to more precision in your business.
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Everyone knows that when you launch new creative in your Meta Ads account, you need to launch it into a creative testing campaign to see how it performs, then, if it's a winner and has accumulated some spend and social proof, move it into your scaling campaign to run against your other winners.
Right?
Not only do I think this is wrong; I think it's downright foolish and expensive for the vast majority of advertisers.
So today I'm telling you exactly how I test new creative and scale winners. Hint: it's way simpler than you think.
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You had questions about Bid Caps. I answered them.
Questions ranged from why your Bid Caps are underspending, why they're overspending, and whether or not they just target lower funnel traffic you were already going to get.
Hopefully this episode helps you manage your Meta Ads smarter. And if you have suggestions for my next AMA, email me or DM me on X and maybe I'll do it.
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ORIGINAL THREAD WITH QUESTIONS
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Lots of people have strong opinions about how best to price an ad agencies, and I'm one of them.
I've seen this from all sides: brand, agency employee, aggregator CEO, and now agency owner. After all that, I'm convinced that charging a percentage of spend is the best model for agency pricing, at least to a certain stage of DTC businesses.
In this episode, I make the case for why, then tell you exactly how I price AJF Growth.
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Wayne Borromeo didn't set out to build a water bottle brand. And he still mostly isn't.
But what do you do when TikToks of your product go not just viral, but as viral as something can possibly go?
Well, you build your seize the opportunity and get as much inventory as you can as fast as you can.
On this bonus episode, Andrew & Wayne talk through how Wondery's water bottle rocketed their business to unexpected heights.
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This bonus episode was sponsored by More Staffing, whom both Andrew and his guest, Wayne, have used to add incredible ecommerce talent to their teams from the Philippines. Learn more at https://morenow.co.
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I absolutely loved this conversation.
When you "get" ecommerce the way that Dan McCormick does, it only makes sense to start a brand yourself and see how far you can take it.
Dan's creatine gummy brand, Create, is growing rapidly and turning the corner to profitability, which isn't surprising given his understanding of the space.
What IS surprising is just how transparent he's being about the journey, all the way down to a monthly tweet showing his exact revenue.
The combo of that knowledge and that transparency means you'll learn a ton from listening to Dan.
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I've come to think of scaling a Meta Ads account as happening in two stages:
Stage 1: finding the creative messaging that resonates with your customers. This is primarily a truly "creative" problem.
But stage 2 is very different: it's about scaling up that messaging into a never-ending stream of highly diverse creative assets. And this is fundamentally an operational challenge.
On today's episode, I'm talking about 8 different kinds of creative assets and helping you with the beginnings of building that operational process.
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I've never done an episode like this ever before.
Nate Lagos's tweet outlining his exact 10 keys to growing Original Grain was so good that I immediately DMed him and said, "Let's talk more about all of these."
So that's what we did: from 1-10, we went piece by piece through each of the points on the list and kicked them around.
This episode is good because Nate is right about so much. Calls to stop touching your ad account, spend money no matter what, and, of course, make sure you've got that dog in you–they're various levels of wise and counterintuitive.
Nate is currently the Head of Marketing at Original Grain and formerly ran growth at Dugout Mugs.
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AOV is either the most overrated or underrated metric in ecommerce, depending on who you ask.
So I'm here to answer the question once and for all: does AOV even really matter?
It depends. Let me explain.
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It's arguably the wildest ride I've ever been on in ecommerce: since beginning to work with Sarah Moret and Curie in January of this year (2023), we've seen massive, rapid growth–and it's been profitable from the start.
Oh also: part of that included selling into every Walmart in the US.
Just nuts.
Sarah is a killer operator and entrepreneur. With a background in both Accounting & VC, she brings a serious financial skillset to the table that has made her quick to turn her rapid growth into disciplined, smart management.
Tune in to this episode if you want to hear about how the peaks and valleys of entrepreneurship and learn how we've seen such an explosion this year.
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Virtual assistants can be helpful. Virtual professionals can transform your business. Get connected to incredible ecommerce talent from the Philippines with More Staffing by visiting www.morenow.co.
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As straightforward as it sounds: 4 steps that go into generating creative that actually performs.
This is the foundation of my approach with my clients, and I've seen it produce results over and over again. Hopefully it can help do the same for you.
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Virtual assistants can be helpful. Virtual professionals can transform your business. Get connected to incredible ecommerce talent from the Philippines with More Staffing by visiting www.morenow.co.
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About a year ago, I released the first interview I ever recorded for The Andrew Faris Podcast: an interview with Patrick Coddou after he'd officially sold Supply.
Selling Supply was a big moment, not just because every exit is a big movement, but because Patrick had become a core member of the ecommerce community, regularly offering up both help and questions as he built along the way.
So a year later, we caught up: what's Patrick been doing since selling? What's life really like after the exit? Did he have seller's remorse? Is he just going to sit on the beach forever, and if so, is "retirement" all its cracked up to be.
The conversation ended up being a wide-ranging exploration on business, wealth, faith, family, and priorities. I, for one, thought Patrick came full of insights.
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A few months ago I started making a series of changes in my business. I cut work that I was good at, but not great at. I began building processes to outsource tasks that others good do just as competently as I could. And I eliminated almost the entirety of my "hourly consulting" business.
The result?
I'm wrapping up Q3 and heading into Q4 with the most profitable, most energizing, least anxiety-producing version of my business I've had yet.
The whole thing has served as yet another reminder to me of a truth I've learned before, but find myself having to keep relearning: insofar as you're able, focus on the highest value parts of your work.
Doing so pays massive dividends both financially and for quality of life.
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Virtual assistants can be helpful. Virtual professionals can transform your business. Get connected to incredible ecommerce talent from the Philippines with More Staffing by visiting www.morenow.co.
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What even IS a "creative strategy?"
Very often, it's nothing. That phrase is a nebulous synonym for "ads that someone hopes will sell products" at least as applied to Meta Ads.
But that's not Fire Team's Jess Bachman. As Jess says in this episode: he's a creative strategist, which means its incumbent on him to have an actual creative strategy.
So on this episode, inspired by a tweet of his about how his process for ad iterations regularly creates tangible results for him and his client, I asked him about that process.
He answered, and he did so with deeply helpful clarity and detail.
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Virtual assistants can be helpful. Virtual professionals can transform your business. Get connected to incredible ecommerce talent from the Philippines with More Staffing by visiting www.morenow.co.
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It's one thing to have the right idea. It's a whole other thing to actually implement it into your business.
In fact, sometimes listening to another podcast or reading another blog post or tweet (mine or anyone else's) can make things worse, not better, if it fills your head with more ideas to chase down that you don't REALLY know how to implement.
So today I took three key ideas that I talk about regularly and explained to you exactly how you can embed them into your business's actual operational practices, not just have them as ideas floating around your brain.
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"Serve the world unselfishly and profit."
That's the tagline that Ezra Firestone appends to his work, and he's dead serious about it. As the CEO of Boom! By Cindy Joseph and of Overtone, plus the Founder of Zipify and SmartMarketer, he's one of the most seasoned and trustworthy voices in ecommerce.
That is reason enough to have him on my podcast, but I am particularly interested in Ezra's approach to the word "unselfishly." So we spent most of this episode exploring the deeper questions of life and business: what is "profit" really? What's the goal of making a lot of money? How can we generate meaning and joy in life?
Ezra is one of the most reflective thinkers I've been around on these topics, and my big hope for this episode is that it will spur similar reflections for you.
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In a straightforward, tactical advice episode, I make the argument that more ecom stores should consider using quizzes as a core part of their customer acquisition funnels.
Quizzes are fun, engaging, yield loads of customer data, capture email & SMS info at massive rates, and maybe most crucially, are highly effective at guiding customers to the exact right product for them.
What's not to love?
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Nasrin Jafari is the founder, designer and CEO of Mixed By Nasrin, a Brooklyn-based fashion company that's recently hit a 7-figure run rate and continues to grow rapidly–and profitably.
In my first ever "Opening The Books" episode, Nasrin and I essentially recorded a coaching call. That is: she gave me access to all of the platforms & numbers in her business, and then we spent 2 hours talking through where she should go from here.
My hope is that Nasrin's willingness to be this vulnerable and generous with her business's details is a giant help to others in similar stages of businesses.
There are a ton of screenshares, docs, and other references here. The video version (which will be ideal for this episode) and all of the links I mentioned are all available at www.ajfgrowth.com/mixed.
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I might be more bullish on Jack Rubin's Purdy & Figg than any other brand on which I've personally worked.
That's because not only does the UK-based natural cleaning product brand have the core financial markers of a successful subscription brand (ridiculous repeat rate, low churn, good margins), but it's co-founder and co-CEO, Jack Rubin, has all the markers of a successful ecommerce operator (smart, humble, relentlessly focused on the drivers of his shareholder value–especially contribution margin).
Even after working with Jack as a business coach for months, I was repeatedly knocked back by his insights.
Frankly, this is one of the most insight-loaded episodes I've ever released. Soak it up.
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If you think forecasting is primarily about inventory planning, think again.
Taken seriously, forecasting forces you to stare your business's financials in the face so you can design your PNL for profit. That makes it a fundamental skill in operating an ecommerce brand.
In today's episode I make the case for forecasting as a key step in designing your PNL for profit, then planning, executing, and tracking towards that profit design.
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Dave Rekuc is the current President & COO at Bambu Earth, the skincare brand that 4x400 contracted to focus on. He's one of the smartest guys in ecommerce, especially when it comes to thinking through the financial mechanics of running an ecom brand.
In this wide-ranging episode, Dave and I talk about his recent bout with testicular cancer, why he was taking work calls during chemo sessions, what makes Bambu Earth such a good business, and how he and his team have engineered their supply chain for both scale and cash.
This is one of those episode you're guaranteed to learn from.
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When Gregg Carey hired Lara Guevara to lead operations and supply chain for his ecommerce brand, Section 119, it changed the trajectories of both of their careers.
That's because Lara is not only a killer ecom professional; it's also because she lives in the Philippines, and their partnership at Section 119 was a light bulb moment that led to the founding of More Staffing, a staffing agency that connects Filipino ecom talent like Lara with other ecom operators in the U.S. and elsewhere.
In fact, saying that this partnership changed their careers might be putting it lightly. Lara is now the CEO of More Staffing and credits her work as a remote employee with a U.S. based company as getting her and her family through her cancer diagnosis and treatments.
More Staffing is my current podcast sponsor, and this interview is sponsored. But don't let that stop you from listening: I only take sponsored interviews if I think the content can actually be good, and this did not disappoint.
We spent most of our time talking about what remote employment in the Philippines is like from the perspective of actual Filipinos. It was enlightening for me, and it will be for you too.
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It's one of the most common questions I get:
"I love the idea of Bid Caps, but every time I try to use them, they just don't spend as much as I want them to. How come?"
There are a lot of potential answers, and today on the show, I've got 7 of them for you.
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I'm convinced most ecommerce brands have a massive cost center that they have no idea exists. In fact, they probably think it's a profit-center.
In this episode, I explain how deeply understanding the value each dollar your ads are creating saves you from acquiring mass amounts of unprofitable customers–and how Meta Ads has a tool built perfectly to solve this problem without you ever having to think about it again.
IMPORTANT NOTE
The Andrew Faris Podcast is now available on YouTube. For episodes like this one that have a screenshare, that's the best place to listen & watch.
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Panagiota Hatzis is an HR & team leadership professional, the founder of Kati Kalo consulting, and the former VP of Differentiation (a twist on HR) & partner at Common Thread Collective, where we used to be colleagues.
I had Panagiota on a couple months ago to talk through how to scale a team with operational intelligence. Which got me thinking: as I start to add employees, what if I used Panagiota sooner than later to help me build out the operational infrastructure of AJF Growth? Things like how we use our tech stack, what my interview process should look like, what needs to be in my handbook, and how I should onboard.
About two weeks into the month-long engagement, I was blown away. I quickly realized that hiring Panagiota as early in my process as I did was some of the best money I could possibly spend as I look towards the future of AJF Growth. So on this episode, I'm telling you why I came to that conclusion by bringing Panagiota back on the pod to show you everything she built for me.
Want to understand what makes for great system-building for your team? Watch and learn from Panagiota.
IMPORTANT NOTE
There is a lot of screensharing in this episode. To get the best experience, watch it on YouTube.
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Here's a conversation that everyone in DTC has had too many times:
Agency: "What's your ROAS target?" Brand: "Well, what's a good ROAS on Meta?"
That conversation is broken on both sides. Great agencies help brands determine that answer; great brands know it isn't as simple as that.
In this episode, I'm helping you answer this question the only way you really can: with a hard look at your unit economics and customer lifetime value.
IMPORTANT NEWS!
The Andrew Faris Podcast is now available on YouTube! If you prefer to watch your podcasts, click here or head to www.youtube.com/@andrewfarispodcast to visit the AFP channel and subscribe.
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Virtual assistants can be helpful. Virtual professionals can transform your business. Get connected to incredible ecommerce talent from the Philippines with More Staffing by visiting www.morenow.co.
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There once was a time when being a great media buyer was all about the ability to allocate budget, target customers effectively, and analyze & optimize the performance of each ad in the account.
Those days are behind us. Which raises a question: what do media buyers even do anymore?
Well, they still do a lot, and Andrew maintains that media buying is actually harder now than it has ever been.
In this episode, Andrew explains the foundation of great media buying today by highlighting the #1 skill from which all other skills flow.
IMPORTANT NEWS!
The Andrew Faris Podcast is now available on YouTube! If you prefer to watch your podcasts, click here or head to www.youtube.com/@andrewfarispodcast to visit the AFP channel and subscribe.
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Everything was going great for Bobbie Baby Co: the venture-backed startup disrupted a duopoly in the super-highly regulated category of baby formula and exploded to over $100m in revenue in two years, due in part to the leadership of this episode's super talented guest, Bobbie's VP of Growth (and former Director of Strategy at Common Thread Collective), Cherene Aubert.
But then the baby formula shortage happened, and as she likes to joke, Cherene's job pivoted to being the VP of "Slowth." Customer acquisition had to cease. Existing subscribers were taken care of first. And everyone waited for the supply chain to recover.
On today episode, Andrew and Cherene talk about what makes Bobbie such a great business, how to think about LTV and intelligent cohort forecasting, and why Bobbie should consider influencer deals with Elon Musk and Nick Cannon.
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EPISODE MUSIC
I tweeted a version of that episode title not long ago. It's nonsense: there is, of course, such a thing as revenue.
But in DTC, revenue is also one of the metrics I reference the least often. Instead, I'm constantly breaking it down into two smaller metrics, both of which tell me a lot more: New Customer Revenue and Returning Customer Revenue. In fact, those are the first two things I look at when I analyze a business.
In this episode I'll not only explain how I do that, but why I believe developing that same instinct is at the foundation of good growth thinking for every ecommerce brand.
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If you aren't a baseball fan, you might not realize that we're living through a revolution. And Driveline Baseball is right at the center of it.
The data-driven baseball training company has trained thousands of high school and college baseball players, well over a hundred MLB players (including MVPs, Cy Young winners, and All-Stars), and overhauled the way teams across pro sports think about turning analytical insights into player development plans. It's an extraordinary feat, and as the acceptance of their methodology has grown over the last ~15 years, so has their business.
Driveline is also one of my clients, so today on the show I talk with Driveline's CEO, Mike Rathwell, about what they're accomplished, what drives their business, where they're going from here, and the incredible opportunities you have to come work alongside me, Mike, and the best baseball players in the world.
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From his early ecommerce days of enterprise level Google Ads arbitrage to his just-ended run as President of Kuru Footwear (a mid 8-figure DTC shoe brand), Sean McGinnis has seen a lot. And his professional throughline is his ability to build and manage teams.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Sean talks through the growth of DTC across his time in the industry, how he hires well and leads effectively, and what's next for him as he leaves Kuru.
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EPISODE MUSIC
It's the most philosophical I've ever gotten on the podcast, and it's all around this question: why are you actually doing what you're doing in business? What's the point? And is it creating the kind of joy deep contentedness that you're longing for at the core of who you are?
This is an easier question to ask than to answer, but as my own business has filled up its capacity and my earning has exceeded my expectations, I'm working through it myself.
On this episode, I'm asking these questions and telling you my answers.
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There's no one I've met who knows Amazon like Bryan Porter, the Chief Ecommerce Operator at Simple Modern.
Simple Modern will do over $100M on Amazon ALONE in 2023, and it's not an accident. It's the downstream affect of intelligent strategies that stretch all the way back to when Bryan and his two co-founders were testing which products to go to market on Amazon with in the first place.
If you're trying to scale a business (or just a portion of your business) on Amazon, you'll need to go beyond listing optimizations and ad strategies. What does that "beyond" look like?
Let Bryan Porter tell you.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Listen to Bryan's previous pod appearance, "Simple Modern Is An Omnichannel Monster" on Apple or Spotify.
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EPISODE MUSIC
Your product didn't just appear out of thin air. It's the result of hundreds of hours of hard work, complete with crucial decisions you made so you could get it just right because you care about serving your customer well and being proud of the product you give them in exchange for their money.
But your customer doesn't know any of that. At least they don't if you don't tell them.
I'm back to discussing creative strategy on this episode, and the idea here is simple but constantly overlooked: learn to tell people about all the decisions that got made to make your product as good as it is.
The more they understand those, the more likely they are to buy it.
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EPISODE SPONSOR: Aronson Creative
Level up your brand with creative leadership from Robbie Aronson at Aronson Creative by visiting www.aronsoncreative.com.
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email Andrew: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: www.ajfgrowth.com
EPISODE MUSIC
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
Kelsey Lehrich is the co-founder and CEO of 365 Holdings, an aggregator that currently has nine brands in their portfolio. Which gives Andrew a chance to revisit one of his favorite questions: is the aggregator model broken, or was Andrew just a poor leader of it at 4x400?
Kelcey’s business is very much not broken, and that means there’s lots to explore about what makes it work and what others can learn from it.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
[02:34] About 365 Holdings
[06:25] Keeping the portfolio vs focusing on just your players
[13:12] Selling entities vs individual businesses
[22:51] What percentage of your revenue is in Opex?
[26:46] What makes a good e-commerce business?
[29:30] The types of businesses that have ongoing demand
[34:47] How to make a good business better
FOLLOW UP WITH KELCEY:
Follow Kelcey on Twitter: @kelceylehrich
Sell Kelcey your business: https://365-holdings.com
Go to HoldCo Conf: https://holdcoconf.com
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email Andrew: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: www.ajfgrowth.com
EPISODE MUSIC
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
It's the most obvious thing about selling products on the Internet. It's also one of the easiest things to forget. And being conscience of it is the bedrock of great digital communication.
What am I talking about?
I'm talking about what I call the "digital gap" between your customers and your products. Put simply, it's the fact that your customers can't actually touch, smell, taste, or even REALLY see or hear your products. Just like a Zoom call can't fully replace an in-person conversation, an image or video can't fully replace a customer's experience of your product.
In this solo episode, I explain how learning to communicate in a way that bridges the digital gap is right at the center of great, profitable online marketing.
THIS WEEK'S SPONSOR: More Staffing
Hire incredible virtual professionals from the Philippines at a fraction of the cost of domestic employees with help from More Staffing. Head to www.morenow.co to get started.
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email Andrew: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: www.ajfgrowth.com
EPISODE MUSIC
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
SPONSORED EPISODE. Gregg Carey is the CEO of Section 119 and co-founder of More Staffing. More Staffing helps e-commerce businesses locate, hire, recruit, train, maximize the value of incredible talent in the Philippines, and they're also my current sponsor.
I don't usually offer sponsored episodes to my advertising partners, but I'm so compelled by how and why Gregg is working with ecom professionals in the Philippines that I wanted him to explain to my audience how and why they can do the same.
So today, we explore the benefits of hiring remote employees in the Philippines–for both your business and those employees.
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EPISODE SPONSOR:
Hire incredible virtual professionals from the Philippines at a fraction of the cost of domestic employees with help from More Staffing by vising www.morenow.co.
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MUSIC
Today's interview is with one of my very favorite people in ecommerce, Andrew Youderian. Andrew is the founder of E-commerce Fuel, an online community of 7-figure & higher ecommerce store owners.
Ecommerce Fuel is the best-run online community I've ever personally seen, so I started by asking Andrew what makes great online community. From there, the conversation shifted to his unique perspective (as the head of a community of over 1,000 ecom store owners) on the state of the ecommerce landscape, how hard or easy things are right now relative to the past, and ecom operators' current & ever-complicated relationship with Amazon.
We close by giving Andrew a taste of his own medicine: we ask him some lightning round questions, just like he does with his guest on The Ecommerce Fuel Podcast.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
[03:31] What is E-commerceFuel?
[05:30] Curating valuable content and fostering reciprocity in the EcommerceFuel Community
[08:10] Examining the success and DNA of the EcommerceFuel community
[10:17] The importance of time and trust in Building a successful online community
[13:37] Impact from working in the community to building strong internal teams
[15:51] Hiring strategies and the importance of test projects and feedback
[22:53] Insights into the e-commerce landscape from a community survey
[26:07] Discussing perspectives on Amazon and e-commerce with Bill D'Allesandro
[28:00] E-commerce landscape and adoption of Amazon by small brands (pros and cons of selling on Amazon)
[30:37] The nuances of selling on Amazon in the e-commerce landscape & navigating the challenges faced by entrepreneurs
[34:23] The evolution and future of e-commerce
[37:14] Lightning round with Andrew Youderian
THIS WEEK'S SPONSOR: More Staffing
Hire incredible virtual professionals from the Philippines at a fraction of the cost of domestic employees with help from More Staffing. Head to www.morenow.co to get started.
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW YOUDERIAN
Join Ecommerce Fuel yourself.
Listen to the E-commerce Fuel Podcast.
Follow Youderian on Twitter: @youderian.
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW FARIS
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewjfaris.
Work with Andrew: www.ajfgrowth.com.
Email Andrew (including about advertising on The Andrew Faris Podcast): [email protected].
MUSIC
Intro Music: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Outro Music: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
You should be buying your Meta Ads with Cost Controls.
I've believed that for awhile now, but in the last six months my conviction on this point has solidified to where I now believe advertisers are costing themselves huge amounts of money in both efficiency AND scale when they refuse to implement this incredible tool.
In today's episode I'm explaining that belief with 6 arguments aimed at convincing you to see the light of Bid Caps, Cost Caps/Cost Per Result Goal, and Minimum ROAS bidding.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
THIS WEEK'S SPONSOR: More Staffing
Hire incredible virtual professionals from the Philippines at a fraction of the cost of domestic employees with help from More Staffing. Head to www.morenow.co to get started.
FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email Andrew: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: www.ajfgrowth.com
EPISODE MUSIC
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
So your business is growing? That's great. But it also comes with complications. Every team member you add means another line of communication, another position description to right, another onboarding process to nail, and another person to loop into the systems & processes that make your business work.
Panagiota Hatzis has seen all of this, and she's helped multiple organizations navigate growth to set themselves up for successful scale. On this episode, we talk about how good process helps you stay lean (and saves you money), how to recruit & retain top tier talent, how to think about compensation, and how to actually get everyone to use your task management software.
Panagiota is a longtime human resources executive in the ecommerce space, including alongside me at Common Thread Collective, where she was the VP of Differentiation. Now she's the founder/CEO of Kati Kalo Consulting, where she's bringing deep insight into team dynamics, recruiting, onboarding, and process building to all kinds of growing organizations.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Special thanks to this week's sponsor, More Staffing.
Add incredible talent from the Philippines to your team with More Staffing at www.morenow.co.
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Music:
In this solo episode, Andrew gets incredibly practical. Want to better harness the power of Meta Ads for your business? Great. Here are 4 truths that most accounts he's audited have gotten wrong.
TIMESTAMPS
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email Andrew: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: www.ajfgrowth.com
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
Aaron Orendorff is the best B2B marketer I know, and it's not just because he's an elite writer (with a byline in the New York Times to show for it). It's also because he has a clear framework for what he's trying to accomplish in his messaging. That framework? Keeping customers from hell and taking them to heaven. He's thought about it in his posts as a marketing lead at Shopify Plus, Common Thread Collective, and now as the Head of Marketing at ReCart.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Aaron and Andrew catch up about what they're seeing across the current world of ecommerce, how to approach marketing messaging, the specifics of a good SMS strategy, and a bunch more.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Places to follow up with Aaron:
Aaron’s Recart Landing Page: recart.com/shopify-sms-app
Twitter: twitter.com/AaronOrendorff
Places to follow up with Andrew:
Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email: [email protected]
Work with me: www.ajfgrowth.com
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
Your brand has great LTV, so everything is easy. Right?
Not so fast. While growing a high-LTV brand is easier than growing a low-LTV brand, having a clear roadmap of how and when to generate growth AND profit can make all the difference between success and wasted opportunity.
In this episode, Andrew talks about how to operate a high LTV brand, from planning where profit comes in your P&L to the specifics of how to run a Meta Ads account when you're forecasting high LTV.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Mentioned in the podcast:
"The 6 Biggest Factors In Retention, In Order" previous episode: Apple, Spotify.
Places to follow up with Andrew:
Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email: [email protected]
Work with me: www.ajfgrowth.com
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
There's just no one else quite like Isaac Medeiros that I know of in ecommerce. With a team of a ~dozen creators, 16 freelance scriptwriters, multiple YouTube & TikTok accounts, and now a Discord channel, Isaac has taken the content-driven approach to DTC to a whole different level.
The result: a fast-growing, profitable DTC brand with a PNL that doesn't look like any others I know of in the space.
I chatted with Isaac about what it really takes to build a machine like the one he has–and whether or not other brands should seek to copy his model (on this question, his answer may surprise you).
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Places to follow up with Isaac:
Follow Isaac on Twitter: www.twitter.com/theisaacmed
Visit the Mini Katana Store: https://minikatana.com/
Visit the Mini Katana Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MiniKatanaStore
Visit the Mini Katana TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mini.katana
Mini Katana's Second TikTok video ever: https://www.tiktok.com/@mini.katana/video/6884345688302357766
Places to follow up with Andrew:
Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email: [email protected]
Work with me: www.ajfgrowth.com
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
Are you SURE you need that attribution tool you're paying for?
I'm not. The closer I've looked at the performance of the brands that I work with, the more convinced I have become that third party attribution tools don't provide incremental insights at best and are overtly misleading at worst.
Today on the show I make the case that you should carefully evaluate whether or not your attribution tool is actually providing you any value–and I'll tell you exactly how I do that with my clients.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
REFERENCES FROM THE EPISODE
PLACES TO FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
Matt Bertulli has seen a lot: he's run a successful agency, raised venture money, and now runs two large and fast-growing ecom brands in Lomi and Pela Case. Which means he's thought a lot about how important it is to do at least one really important thing right: nail your customer experience.
Matt joined me for a wide-ranging discussion on how to make sure you do that, how that creates value in your business, and how the visual design of Lomi creates ongoing value for the brand.
Follow Matt on Twitter: @mbertulli
Check out Lomi & Pela Case.
Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email: [email protected]
Work with me: www.ajfgrowth.com
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
Let's talk retention, but instead of pure methods and tactics, we're analyzing the "genetic" elements of high-retention brands and products.
I've got 6 of them, and I put them in order of most important to least important.
The good news? If these factors don't describe your brand or products particularly well, you're the one with the power to change them.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Places to follow up with Andrew:
Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email: [email protected]
Work with me: www.ajfgrowth.com
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
Bill D'Alessandro is back! A couple months ago, Bill wrote a post that blew up in the Ecommerce Fuel forums titled "This Is An Intervention: Stop Taking Fixed Fee Loans" where he explained why the quick & easy revenue-based loans from folks like Wayflyer, ClearCo, and Shopify Capital are so much worse than they look.
I'll be honest: I myself realized how poorly I had been thinking about this kind of debt, and I knew I needed to have Bill back on the show to explain more to the rest of us, especially after his episode on contribution margin had been one of my most popular ever.
Bill is the CEO of Elements Brands, has a finance degree, and has personally borrowed millions of dollars of debt and equity to finance his businesses. He knows what he's talking about and is an incredible guide to revenue-based ("fixed fee") loans, credit cards, asset-based loans, SBA loans, and more. It's a great chance for you to think through the financial stack at the center of your business.
Want to take Bill up on his offer to audit your financial stack? Reach out to him by heading to https://billda.com/debt.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Read Bill's full article (and work with him on your financial stack!) by clicking here.
Follow Bill on Twitter at @BillDA.
Listen to Bill's podcast, Acquisitions Anonymous on Apple or Spotify.
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email Andrew: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: www.ajfgrowth.com
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
You didn't become an entrepreneur because you think, "Nothing will work out and I won't even try." Quite the opposite.
But if you're the CEO of your company now, it's your job to flip that instinct around and start asking, "How will this go wrong?"
For optimists like many of us, that's not intuitive. But it's necessary. In this episode I'll explain why.
TIMESTAMPS
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email Andrew: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: www.ajfgrowth.com
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
If you gave me a list of 100 businesses and asked me to rank which ones were most likely to die in the next 5 years, I'd be shocked if you found me 5 I'd rank higher than the national retailer I'm talking about in this episode.
But here's the thing: I'd be wrong. Not only is this business still around; it's growing. And the story is full of great lessons even for those of us running very different types of businesses.
Today we're talking about the basics of how customers interact with products, and how getting that right goes a long, long, long way for your success.
TIMESTAMPS
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email Andrew: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: www.ajfgrowth.com
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
Bear Handlon isn't on Twitter, and if you aren't a CrossFitter you might not have heard much about Born Primitive. But I've seen them up close for years now and I can tell you for certain: it's one of the best ecommerce businesses you don't know. BP is a mid-8-figure brand, punctuated by putting up $1.2M in two hours to kickoff BFCM.
Bear is a remarkable guy who started BP with his then-wife, Mallory, while being active duty in the Navy. Oh: and he's only now getting to Amazon and brick-and-mortar retail. So there's lots of growth left.
Bear joined the podcast to breakdown the journey with me, including what he attributes BP's success to, the true driver of LTV, and how they think about the centrality of brand-building in apparel in particular. You WILL learn a lot from this episode. Give it a look, then go buy yourself the most comfortable activewear in the game.
TIMESTAMPS
Visit Born Primitive at www.bornprimitive.com.
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email Andrew: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: www.ajfgrowth.com
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
It's the "very special episode" time of year and I'm doing my part. To round out 2022, I joined up with The Ecommerce Playbook Podcast for a colab episode where Taylor Holiday (CEO of Common Thread Collective), Richard Gaffin (Senior Copywriter & Podcast Cohost at CTC) and I reflected on the unique ability of failure to form us and teach us for the long term. Whether it's been a great or terrible year for you in 2022, there's something here for you to chew on.
Places to follow up with Taylor, Richard, CTC, & The Ecommerce Playbook Podcast:
Listen to The Ecommerce Playbook.
Explore working with CTC.
Follow Taylor on Twitter: @taylorholiday
Follow Richard on Twitter: @richardgaffin
Places to follow up with me:
Follow me on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email me: [email protected]
Work with me: www.ajfgrowth.com
Intro Music: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Outro Music: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
There's one really simple way to make certain that your DTC business simply cannot be successful at scale: lacking any organic revenue. In this episode, I'll walk through the foudnational design of a scalable ecommerce business, including the two main ways to generate organic revenue on the back of your paid acquisition.
TIMESTAMPS
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email Andrew: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: www.ajfgrowth.com
Music Intro: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Music Outro: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
Is there anything more certain in digital advertising than the importance of regularly testing new ad creative?
Most people (including me!) would usually tell you that the answer is a resounding "no." But this week on the podcast, I lay out the case for when and why you should quit the creative testing if you really want to get the most out of your ad account.
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email Andrew: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: www.ajfgrowth.com
Intro Music: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Outro Music: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
Bill D'Alessandro is the founder and CEO of Elements Brands, an aggregator that includes the rapidly growing Natural Dog Co. And while it's always too much to talk about "the secret" to someone's success, it's not an accident that Bill's success comes alongside his obsession with tracking & optimizing for contribution margin.
In this episode we start by defining "contribution margin," talk about why and how Bill's team ruthlessly reports on it, and how it helps you get away from the deceiving ubiquity of revenue metrics.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Places to follow up with Bill:
Follow Bill on Twitter: @BillDA
Bill’s Podcast: Acquisitions Anonymous (Apple, Spotify)
Work with Bill: www.elementsbrands.com
Places to follow up with me:
Follow me on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email me: [email protected]
Work with me: www.ajfgrowth.com
Intro Music: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Outro Music: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
Creative is the key to success on Facebook Ads, right?
Right. But lots of brands aren't thinking strategically about the foundation underneath creative testing that makes it possible–which means they're REALLY not thinking about how to operationalize it into their business. That means they're leaving a lot of customers and profit on the table.
In this episode I walk through what drives great creative testing, and therefore profitable customer acquisition. It's obvious once I say it, but the implications are massive.
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email Andrew: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: www.ajfgrowth.com
Intro Music: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Outro Music: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
Andrew Campbell sits in a unique position: he's the Head of Data Science at the most ambitious project in all of ecommerce, OpenStore, which means he's thinking about ecommerce data & how to automate operational processes from a perspective that no one else is. So I grabbed 40 minutes of his time to talk about what's happening at OpenStore, what it's like to row in the Olympics, and why you should be at least trying Bid Caps for your Facebook Ads.
Follow Andrew Campbell on Twitter: @TheAndyCamps
Sell your business to OpenStore: https://open.store
Follow me on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email me: [email protected]
Work with me: www.ajfgrowth.com
Intro Music: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Outro Music: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
"We need to diversify our ad spend away from Facebook!"
That's one of the most common things I hear ecom operators & marketers say right now, and it's mostly a bad idea. In this episode, I'll explain to you why the better path is to focus more resolutely on the best opportunity for efficient customer acquisition at scale–Facebook–and only diversify if and when the conditions are right for it.
Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewjfaris
Email Andrew: [email protected]
Work with Andrew: www.ajfgrowth.com
Intro Music: "Tell Me Mama" by The Devious Means
Outro Music: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
It's the last day of my weeklong BFCM special! This week I've got 5 very short episodes with super ecom experts giving you ONE (and only one!) tip to maximize Black Friday/Cyber Monday. The best part? They're ALL still actionable for your teams, even this late in the game.
To close out the week, I just couldn't stay away from my business partner, friend, and former CTC & 4x400 colleague and boss, Taylor Holiday. Taylor's got one last tip for BFCM focused on making sure you understand your finances. As he's said elsewhere: the next DTC winners will be those who are operationally excellent, and he's got some help for you to do that here.
You can follow Taylor on Twitter at @TaylorHoliday, work with Common Thread Collective by visiting their website, and/or click here to check out CTC's learning & early stage growth community, Admission.
Follow me on Twitter at @andrewjfaris.
Work with me at www.ajfgrowth.com.
Email me with questions or thoughts at [email protected].
Intro & outro music: "Holiday" by The Devious Means
Day 4 of my weeklong BFCM special! This week I've got 5 very short episodes with super ecom experts giving you ONE (and only one!) tip to maximize Black Friday/Cyber Monday. The best part? They're ALL still actionable for your teams, even this late in the game.
Today's episode might be the silliest Andrew has ever gotten on this show while still being loaded with ecom insight, both of which are thanks to the guest, Cherene Aubert. Cherene is currently the Head of Growth at Bobbie Baby and formerly the Director of Strategy at Common Thread Collective, where she and Andrew got to work together. You will LOVE this episode.
You can follow Cherene on Twitter at @ChereneAubert (slide into DM's: she might even be willing to consult a little for your brand). You can also shop her incredible ecommerce store, Official Shoppe.
You can follow Andrew on Twitter at @andrewjfaris and explore working with him at www.ajfgrowth.com.
Intro & outro music: "Holiday" by The Devious Means
Andrew is joined by Mike Beckham (CEO) and Bryan Porter (CEcomO), cofounders of Simple Modern to talk about how they built a 9-figure omnichannel drinkware behemoth. Andrew and the SM guys talk Amazon (where Bryan has led SM to be the #1 seller of drinkware on AMZ), wholesale strategy, and a whole bunch more.
Since recording this episode, Andrew had Bryan come back to talk specifically about Simple Modern's Amazon strategy. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts.
This episode is brought to you by Kynship. Learn more about Kynship by clicking here: https://bit.ly/3rrGAYc Simple Modern's Website: www.simplemodern.com Follow Mike Beckham on Twitter: @mikebeckhamsm Follow Bryan Porter on Twitter: @jbryanporter Follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewjfaris Email Andrew about the podcast: [email protected] Work with Andrew: www.ajfgrowth.com Intro music: "Tell Me, Mama" by The Devious Means Outro music: "Rusty Little Scissors" by The Devious Means
En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.