Most founders are obsessed with “new customers” and blind to the fortune sitting in their existing list.

In this episode of Hacks and Hobbies, Junaid sits down with Nikita Vakhrushev, founder of Aspect Agency and retention specialist for over 100+ direct-to-consumer brands, to expose the hidden systems that turn casual buyers into lifelong customers. If you’ve ever felt guilty about “not emailing your list enough” or wondered why your campaigns don’t translate into real revenue, this conversation will flip the way you think about email, SMS, and retention forever.

Nikita breaks down why “set it and forget it” is killing your profitability, the real difference between campaigns and lifecycle marketing, and how to think about retention as a revenue engine, not a “nice-to-have” side project. From customer psychology and buyer journeys to plain-text emails that quietly print money, this episode is a roadmap for founders who are ready to stop leaking profit and start building a brand people return to again and again.

5 Key Takeaways

[00:00] The Real Cost of Ignoring Retention
Why brands are leaving $200–400k a year on the table by neglecting email and SMS.

[03:44] The Death of “Set It and Forget It”
Nikita explains why automations must be actively maintained, tested, and reordered to keep revenue growing.

[08:24] Campaigns vs. Lifecycle: The Shift That Changes Everything
How understanding customer awareness stages (from unaware to company-aware) transforms your retention strategy.

[11:25] Designing a Customer Journey That Actually Converts
From welcome flows to abandonment sequences: building belief in your brand step by step.

[15:53] The Anatomy of a Great Retention System
The people, processes, and platforms you need: strategist, designer, copywriter, and why Klaviyo dominates Shopify stores.

[23:01] Metrics That Actually Pay the Bills
Why open rates and CTR don’t matter if they don’t translate into revenue, LTV, and dollars-per-subscriber.

[31:17] AI, Agencies, and the Future of Retention
How AI will reshape agencies into data centers—and what smart brands should be doing right now to future-proof.

[33:35] Overwhelmed? Do This One Thing This Week
Nikita’s simple, plain-text email play any founder can send to generate revenue immediately.

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Most brands think they need more traffic. Nikita says they’re already sitting on a goldmine.

In this episode, email & SMS strategist Nikita Vakhrushev, founder of Aspect, breaks down how direct-to-consumer brands are quietly leaving $200,000–$400,000 a year on the table by ignoring the “boring” retention channels: email and SMS. After helping over 100 DTC brands and turning broken automations into $40,000/month profit engines, Nikita reveals why the real leverage isn’t in your next ad campaign—it’s in how you follow up.

Junaid and Nikita go deep into the exact flows, systems, and mindset shifts that separate brands who coast from brands who compound. If you’ve ever wondered why your Klaviyo is “set up” but not really printing money, this episode is your wake-up call.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

[00:00] The email guy who never planned to run an email agency
How Nikita went from running his own Shopify store to building Aspect, an email & SMS agency for DTC brands.

[04:41] The $1k to $40k/month turnaround: rebuilding a broken backend
The “Good, Clean Love” case study that proved the pivot to email/SMS was a 7-figure decision.

[07:31] Where the missing $200k–$400k a year is really hiding
Nikita breaks down the silent killers in most accounts: bad timing, weak follow-up, and unoptimized list growth.

[11:46] The non-negotiable flows every brand must have (but most mess up)
From welcome flows to four layers of abandonment and post-purchase—Nikita maps the essential retention spine.

[16:27] The first system to build for a $50k/month brand with zero retention
Why list growth and a “mystery offer” opt-in beat clever design and complex funnels.

[20:41] Proactive vs. passive brands: who actually wins with agencies
The behavioral difference between brands that explode and those that stagnate, even with the same strategy.

[22:59] The dangerous myth: more sales ≠ more profit
How constant discounting trains your customers to never pay full price and slowly kills your margins.

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Are your stories changing lives—or quietly causing harm?

In this powerful conversation, nonprofit messaging strategist Maria Bryan returns to go deeper into trauma‑informed storytelling—and why every marketer, nonprofit leader, and creator needs to rethink how they collect and share stories. If you’ve ever shared a client story, testimonial, or case study “for the cause,” this episode will challenge you—in the best possible way.

Maria explains how to move from well‑meaning to well‑practiced: embedding safety, consent, and dignity into every stage of your storytelling workflow. From fundraising campaigns to podcast interviews, she breaks down practical steps to reduce harm, protect the people behind the stories, and protect yourself from vicarious trauma. Whether you’re a nonprofit leader, creative, or solo podcaster, you’ll walk away with a new lens on your work—and a clear path to doing it more ethically and sustainably.

5 Key Takeaways

Website & Free Trauma-Informed Storytelling Toolkit:
https://www.mariabryan.com

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What if the way you tell stories is quietly harming the very people you want to help?

In this episode, Junaid Ahmed sits down with Maria Bryan, a trauma-informed storytelling trainer and host of the When Bearing Witness podcast. Maria has trained thousands of nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and storytellers to share stories that inspire change without exploitation, re-traumatization, or stripping people of their dignity.

Together they unpack how traditional nonprofit and marketing storytelling—especially “success stories” and testimonials—can unintentionally cause deep harm, and what it really looks like to tell stories rooted in safety, consent, and agency. From rethinking “we need hundreds of stories a year” to creating harm repair plans and no-questions-asked takedown policies, this conversation is a blueprint for anyone who interviews, fundraises, or shares lived-experience stories.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Key Timestamps

[0:00:22] – What is trauma-informed storytelling?
Maria explains how nonprofit stories can help or harm, and why traditional “impact stories” need a complete rethink.

[0:03:35] – The hidden cost of telling hundreds of stories a year
Why nonstop demand for “fresh stories” can burn trust, re-open wounds, and what to do instead.

[0:05:46] – Safety & agency: two pillars everyone forgets
Concrete examples of how organizations unintentionally strip choice, autonomy, and safety from story owners.

Trauma-informed storytelling starts with who the story is for and who it belongs to.
Story owners are often people who’ve experienced housing insecurity, violence, addiction, or other hardship. Asking them to revisit their worst moments for a campaign is not neutral—it has emotional and physical consequences.

Volume is the enemy of care.
Nonprofits conditioned to believe they need “dozens or hundreds of fresh stories a year” often ignore trauma-informed processes. Slowing down, repurposing content, and using anonymous or composite stories can protect people while still raising money.

Safety and agency are non-negotiable.
From sharing clear goals for the story, to offering choices about interview format, location, and interviewer identity, every step should be designed to give back control to the story owner.

Consent is not a one-time signature—it’s an ongoing relationship.
Story owners should know where their story will appear, how it may be reused, and have the ability to review, correct, or retract. A no-questions-asked takedown policy is a hallmark of ethical storytelling.

Being trauma-informed is a journey, not a checklist.
Organizations and agencies must build systems: story readiness checks, multi-person review, cultural and health literacy review, and harm repair plans for when (not if) mistakes are made.

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What if 95% of your life is being run by programs you didn’t choose?

In this episode of Hacks and Hobbies, Junaid Ahmed sits down with Irina Alexander, professional mental trainer and founder of the Academy of Motive, Action. With 20 years in neuroscience, entrepreneurship, and global wisdom traditions, Irina has helped hundreds of high-stress professionals step out of autopilot, dismantle hustle culture, and rebuild a life that actually feels like their own.

Irina shares the moment she broke down on the highway, called her mother, and realised the successful life she’d built… wasn’t actually hers. From selling a thriving business to redefining success as soul-aligned living, she walks us through the inner rewiring required to move from obligation, burnout, and busyness into clarity, courage, and conscious choice. If you feel like you’re doing “all the right things” yet still feel empty, this conversation is a wake-up call.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

[00:00] The Setup: Why Your Life Might Be Running on Default Settings
Junaid opens the episode and introduces Irina’s work on subconscious programming, burnout, and mental mastery.

[02:11] How Your Childhood Wires Your Adult Life (And What That Means for Your Kids)
Irina explains how subconscious programs are installed before age seven—and why awareness still gives you power as a parent.

[04:58] “You Can’t Parent Your Kids, Only Yourself” – Radical Parenting Reframe
Irina shares her philosophy on modelling over lecturing, quality over quantity, and the monthly “dates” she takes with her daughters.

[07:46] The Breakdown on the Highway: When Success Stops Feeling Like Success
Irina recounts calling her mother, walking away from 60–80 hour weeks, and realising she was living for obligation, not desire.

[10:06] What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid?
The terrifying questions Irina asked herself before deciding to sell her company and rewrite her life.

[12:15] Choice. Change. Action. The Framework for Rewiring Your Life
How Irina blends neuroscience and soul work into a simple, brutally honest process for real transformation.

[13:10] Saying Yes to Life Again: Curiosity, Self-Investment & Letting Go of Judgment
From personal development training to reconnecting with friends, Irina shares how she rebuilt her life from the inside out.

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If your life feels successful on the outside but empty, chaotic or exhausted on the inside, this episode is for you.

In this conversation, Junaid Ahmed sits down with Irina Alexander – a high-performance coach who blends neuroscience, leadership, and ancient wisdom – to unpack what it really takes to stop living on default and start living by conscious choice.

Irina shares how she burned out as a driven business owner and mother, the moment she realized her “normal” was actually toxic, and the exact inner work she used to rewire her brain, heal from autopilot patterns, and build a life that feels aligned at a soul level. You’ll learn her 3P method (pause, pull back, physical scan), how to integrate what you know into how you actually live, and why small 1-degree shifts can completely change the trajectory of your life.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re smart, capable, and high-performing—but still not at peace—this episode will show you a new way forward.

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Most people don’t fail because they’re lazy. They fail because they get lost in the middle.

In this raw and practical conversation, Junaid sits down with high‑performance coach Jake Smolarek to dismantle the myths around success, discipline, and “luck.” Jake introduces his powerful 1080/10 framework and Vision GPS, revealing why the middle 80% of any journey—the boring, lonely, repetitive part—is exactly where champions are made and everyone else quits.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, started strong and faded, or secretly feared both failure and success, this episode will give you a new roadmap. You’ll learn how to think in decades, build systems that work when you sleep, and develop the kind of discipline that quietly turns you into “the lucky one” everyone talks about.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

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What if the only rule you followed was to never have a 0% day?

In this powerful conversation, host Junaid Ahmed sits down with high-performance coach and entrepreneur Jake Smolarek, who arrived in the UK with just £150 and went on to build multiple successful businesses. This isn’t about hacks or hype. It’s about the brutal honesty, discipline, and obsession required to build a life you’re proud of.

Jake breaks down his core frameworks — No 0% Days, the 10-80-10 rule, and a preview of his Vision GPS system — and shows how ordinary people with families, full-time jobs, and limited time can still build something extraordinary. From why we keep promises to others but break them to ourselves, to how to treat your side hustle like a plane taking off at 100% thrust, this episode will challenge the way you think about discipline, success, and what you’re truly capable of.

You will not see your “busy schedule” the same way after this.

Key Takeaways:

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Most entrepreneurs are building impressive businesses on a completely broken financial foundation.

In this episode of Hacks and Hobbies, Junaid sits down with Paden Squires, a CPA, CFP, and founder of Squires Tax Planning, who walked away from the corporate world to help business owners finally feel in control of their money. Paden reveals why even multi–million-dollar businesses are often a financial mess behind the scenes, why “just hiring a CPA” isn’t enough, and how simple systems, the right tools, and proactive tax planning can completely change the trajectory of your business and your life.

This conversation is a roadmap for solopreneurs and small business owners who are tired of dreading tax season, guessing from their bank balance, and hoping it will all “work out somehow.” Paden breaks down how to think about profit, how to pay yourself, what numbers actually matter, and how to use AI and systems to build a business that doesn’t depend on you grinding 70 hours a week.

You’ll walk away seeing finances not as fear, but as a framework for freedom.

5 Key Takeaways

Timestamps

(Add or update once available for this episode’s show notes.)

Website: https://www.squirestaxplanning.com
Personal Site: https://www.padensquires.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/padensquires
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089855132002
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paden-squires-cpa-cfp-19681a1a
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PadenSquires
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-their-success-advice-for-entrepreneurs/id1723352366
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2sXtqL6QHmDykXRJRFX71W?si=1760bcbc08dc4130&nd=1&dlsi=a1622ac901c2497a

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Most entrepreneurs are not failing because of their product… they’re failing because of their numbers.

In this episode of Hacks and Hobbies, Junaid sits down with Paden Squires, founder of Squires Tax Planning, who has quietly helped business owners save tens of thousands of dollars and rebuild their relationship with money. This isn’t a “tax tips” episode. It’s a deep dive into identity, behavior change, and the simple financial habits that separate stuck founders from those who compound wealth year after year.

Paden shares how Ray Dalio’s “Principles”, radical transparency, and his own philosophy of integrity and alignment shape the way he coaches entrepreneurs. From saving a client $30,000+ in taxes with a few structural moves, to spotting patterns in thousands of tax returns, Peyton reveals how the real unlock isn’t a secret loophole—it’s the willingness to face your numbers, do the work, and change who you are as a business owner.

If your finances feel overwhelming, confusing, or “not your thing,” this conversation will show you where to start, what to focus on, and why tiny daily decisions with money are the real superpower.

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