Most people think buying a business means signing the papers, hiring a GM, and collecting checks from the beach. David Hori bought a company that got acquired by Toyota, then decided to spend his career telling people why that hands off dream is mostly a myth.

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Join David's "Discover A Less Stressful Way To Sell Your Business" Webinar:
🚨 SPOILER ALER! David is offering listeners a free webinar for our listeners:

👉 Sign up here: https://learn.toplineops.com/pod-webinar-1/

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What you'll learn:

• Why "buy a business for passive income" is one of the most dangerous pitches in the acquisition space
• How to define your buy box so you stop chasing every deal and start closing the right ones
• Why staying in your lane, even when it feels limiting, gets you to the finish line faster
• The four pillars David uses in his durability diagnostic to determine what a business is actually worth to a buyer
• Why three years of financials tell a truer story than one great year
• The overlooked alternative to a full sale that lets an owner keep working in the business they built

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About David Hori:
David Hori is the founder of Top Line Operators, where he teaches people how to buy, stabilize, and scale existing businesses instead of starting from zero. Before this, he built and scaled startups in the VC world, including a company acquired by Toyota in 2023. He now runs a weekly webinar for business owners who are exit curious and is opening up a free beta of his durability diagnostic tool for listeners of this episode.

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Connect with David Hori:
Website: https://www.toplineops.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamdavidhori/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedavidhori/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedavidhori
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedavidhori

=================================

About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].

Did you know 81% of people want to write a book? Yet, only 3% ever finish one. Michael Giannulis built Dictate to close that gap, not by making writing easier, but by removing writing from the process entirely. You talk, an AI named Silas asks the right questions, and a book comes out the other end in your voice.

Michael spent two decades in direct response marketing before building Dictate, and this conversation covers the mechanics of the product, the legal reality of AI generated books, and the pricing and go to market strategy behind a company he thinks could become his biggest yet.

=================================
Get Michael's Free Author Blueprint:
🚨 SPOILER ALER! Michael is offering listeners a free Author Blueprint.

👉 Grab it here: https://startdictate.com/builttoscale

=================================
What you'll learn:

• Why the legal system won't let you copyright a book an AI mostly wrote, and how Dictate gets around it by tracking a "voice DNA" percentage before it starts writing
• How a 15 to 20 question AI interview turns into a 25 to 30 page book blueprint in under 30 minutes
• The difference between copywriting and copy thinking, and why that distinction matters more now that AI can write copy on demand
• Why a published book functions as the most effective sales page a service business can have, and how it opens doors to paid speaking

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About Michael Giannulis:
Michael Giannulis has worked in direct response marketing since 2006, building and scaling multiple companies in ecommerce and education. He is the founder of Dictate, an AI platform that turns expert knowledge into a professionally published book through conversation instead of writing.

=================================
Key moments:

• (11:00) The $50 payment plan tweak that instantly lifted upsell conversions, and the Coke and Pepsi decoy pricing story behind it
• (17:23) Copywriting versus copy thinking, and why that edge still matters in an AI world
• (27:43) Inside the AI interview: how a 25 to 30 page book blueprint gets built in under 30 minutes, and why people cry when they see it
• (31:41) The legal reality: why you can't copyright a book an AI mostly wrote, and how Dictate's "voice DNA" tracking gets around it

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Connect with Michael Giannulis:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgiannulis
Instagram / X / Facebook: @mikegiannulis
Website: https://startdictate.com
Email: [email protected]

=================================

About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].

Most Amazon sellers who try TikTok Shop fail within 30 days. Not because they lack budget, but because they're still thinking like Amazon sellers.

Can Chan has spent over a decade building an eight figure e-commerce business, first on Amazon, then as one of the first sellers on TikTok Shop when it launched in the US. In this conversation, he breaks down why the two platforms require completely different mindsets, why creators (not keywords) drive 70% of TikTok Shop revenue, and why he shut down his own AI product the moment he saw ChatGPT and Gemini catching up.

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What you'll learn:

• How to calculate the real starting investment for launching on Amazon, and why $50K is the floor, not the ceiling
• How to shift from a keyword mindset to a creator relationship mindset when you expand into TikTok Shop
• How top TikTok Shop sellers structure creator commissions (20% to 40%, sometimes more) to build a reliable affiliate engine
• How to recognize when a product or business line needs to be killed before a competitor, or a better AI model, does it for you
• How AI is cutting Amazon ad management teams from 5 to 6 people down to 2 to 3 while lowering ad costs
• Where Can sees the next major opportunity forming at the intersection of AI and physical products

=================================
About Can Chan:
Can Chan is an eight figure e-commerce operator based in China and the founder of Top Tier League, a global community for TikTok Shop, Amazon, and AI driven commerce operators. He has sold on Amazon for more than a decade and was among the first wave of sellers on TikTok Shop in the US, and he now runs a proprietary AI platform that manages Amazon ad spend for eight figure sellers.

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Key moments:

• 09:00 The real difference between Amazon's keyword driven model and TikTok's discovery driven model
• 10:42 Breaking down the actual dollar investment needed to launch on Amazon
• 18:14 How affiliate creators work inside TikTok Shop and why they drive most of the sales
• 22:39 How top sellers like Goli throw parties and give away prizes (including a Lamborghini) to their best creators
• 25:30 Why Can shut down his own AI image generation business in under two months
• 30:03 How his current AI platform cuts Amazon ad management costs and headcount

=================================
Connect with Can Chan:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/can-chan-966a632b
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/can.chan.774033
Top Tier League: toptierleague.com

=================================

About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].

Most people ask "why me?" Dr. Charles Livingston learned to ask "why not me?" That one shift turned a chiropractor into a digital marketer, and a digital marketer into the founder of one of DTC's most respected premium coffee brands.

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What you'll learn:

• How Charles validated Life Boost Coffee with affiliates before spending a single dollar on paid media
• Why he still forwards every customer support ticket to his personal Gmail, even with 40+ employees
• How to navigate commodity pricing swings and supply chain chaos without blowing your margins
• The exact channel sequencing he used: affiliates first, then paid, then multi-channel expansion
• Why "certified organic" isn't enough, and how third-party toxin testing became a core differentiator
• How the GLP-1 trend is reshaping product formulation across the health and beverage space

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About Dr. Charles Livingston:

Dr. Charles Livingston is a chiropractor turned serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Life Boost Coffee. Before Life Boost, he built Fat Loss Factor and Perfect Origins, two of the affiliate marketing world's most successful digital health brands. He has been operating in direct response marketing for over a decade and brings a practitioner's lens to product development, performance marketing, and scaling DTC brands.

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Key moments:

• 0:00 Cold open: "Why not me?" The mindset shift that changed everything
• 3:52 How bulletproof coffee led to founding a company
• 9:00 Affiliate-first go-to-market: validating before spending on paid
• 12:09 Why Charles still reads every support ticket
• 15:00 Navigating coffee commodity pricing and supply chain chaos
• 32:25 Managing 50+ SKUs and the cost of too many products
• 34:46 GLP-1s, protein trends, and where product innovation is heading
• 45:41 The retail leap: Whole Foods, purchase orders, and floating cash
• 47:42 What a holiday vendor show taught him about buyer psychology

=================================
Connect with Dr. Charles Livingston: 

Website: lifeboostcoffee.com 
Email: [email protected]

=================================

About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].

The affiliate marketing playbook that worked in 2022 is not just outdated. It is actively working against you. Andra Ionescu, started off as an affiliate manager at MaxWeb, and has recently been promoted to the CEO role. She has seen every side of this industry since 2012, and is here to tell you exactly what has changed and what to do about it.

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What you'll learn:

• Why native advertising is the most underrated channel in performance marketing right now and how to structure your first campaign with a pre-lander that actually converts
• How to run the 70/30 budget split between a scaling pipeline and a testing pipeline so you never run dry on winners
• Why Meta's Andromeda update killed the old targeting playbook and why creative volume is now your primary lever
• How AI overviews have taken over 60% of supplement-related searches and what you need to do now to stay visible
• Why making your account manager your best friend is the single highest-leverage move any new affiliate can make

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About Andra Ionescu:

Andra Ionescu is the CEO of MaxWeb, one of the leading CPA performance networks in direct response and e-commerce. She has been in the industry since 2012, working across vendor, affiliate, and operations roles before taking the top seat. MaxWeb works across Meta, native, Google, and email, running exclusive offers at scale in health, nutra, and e-commerce.

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Connect with Andra Ionescu:

Website: www.maxweb.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andraionescu90/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andra.ionescu.90/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andra.ionescu.90

Affiliate World Budapest: (Shmuel and Andra are both speaking): https://affiliateworldconferences.com/

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Key moments:

• 10:12 - Why VSLs still work when the hook lands in the first minutes, and why the staged, polished format is dying
• 17:45 - Why native is the long-term play and how Meta's Andromeda update changed the cost and learning curve
• 30:12 - How AI overviews are dominating supplement search results and why the old affiliate SEO playbook is broken
• 38:51 - Why the next phase of affiliate marketing is about training AI, not just people
• 40:48 - The single most important move any new affiliate can make before spending a dollar on ads

=================================

About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].

Affiliates and media buyers don't build your funnel. They pour gasoline on a fire that's already burning. Francisco Bervis, Head of Marketplace at Everflow, breaks down exactly what brands need to prove before any partner will touch them, and the real math behind who gets a $400 CPA and who gets $60.

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What you'll learn:

• Why your brand needs tested creatives and a working funnel before any affiliate will work with you
• How to validate a lander or ad creative for as little as $20 to $50 before scaling spend
• The real CPA gap between premium GLP1 weight loss brands and smaller competitors, and what drives it
• How a "quadruple win" referral structure builds long term affiliate loyalty instead of one off introductions
• Why relationship marketing still beats pure performance metrics in affiliate partnerships
• What Everflow's marketplace actually does for brands looking for the right partners

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About Francisco Bervis: 

Francisco Bervis is Head of Marketplace at Everflow, where he audits and matches brand offers with the affiliates, publishers, and media buyers who can actually scale them. His path there runs through zoology, lead generation, business development for East Fifth Avenue, and cart recovery strategy at HelpGrid, giving him a rare view into both sides of the affiliate equation.

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Key moments: 

• 0:00 - Francisco's gasoline analogy: what media buyers actually do for your brand 
• 6:37 - The cold call that generated $1.6 million for a nonprofit fair, and the lesson behind it 
• 18:35 - What Everflow actually is, and why lifetime value matters more than first look conversion 
• 30:21 - Why untested creatives are the fastest way to get rejected by a media buyer 
• 38:24 - The real CPA numbers behind GLP1 weight loss brands, big and small 
• 43:08 - The quadruple win: why Francisco gives away 2% of revenue for life

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Connect with Francisco Bervis:

Telegram: http://t.me/fbervis 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatsfrank/ 

Everflow Marketplace: https://www.everflow.io/enablement/everflow-marketplace 

Affiliate World: https://affiliateworldconferences.com/ 

=================================

About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].

Most hiring fails before a single resume is reviewed. The job description is vague. The compensation range is too low to attract the right talent. The "one role" you posted is actually three jobs crammed into one. And then you wonder why six weeks in you're starting over.

Michele Lambert has been inside this problem since 2012. She has built remote teams for direct response brands, internet marketers, and multi-million dollar online businesses. She has supported New York Times bestselling launches, built a Rolodex of thousands of vetted A players, and now runs Bella Connections, a recruiting and team-building firm built specifically for the online business world.

This conversation gets into the stuff most founders skip.

=================================
What you'll learn:

• Why you should build your 90-day KPIs before you ever write a job description, and how that one shift changes everything about the hire
• How listing a narrow comp range quietly filters out your best candidates before you ever see their resume
• What values alignment actually looks like in a remote team, and why it matters more than skills
• The resume mistakes that get candidates blacklisted across the entire direct response space
• Why applying straight through the process beats DMs and intro requests every time
• How AI is reshaping hiring right now, which companies are winning, and what candidates need to do to stay irreplaceable

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About Michele Lambert:
Michele Lambert is the founder of Bella Connections, a remote recruiting and team-building firm specializing in the direct response, e-commerce, and online business space. She has been building high-performance remote teams since 2012 and maintains a curated Rolodex of thousands of vetted operators, marketers, and executives. She is also co-launching Level A, a career program designed to help people land six-figure roles in the online business world.

=================================
Key moments:

• 4:32 - The two mistakes founders make before posting a single job (clarity and comp)
• 13:23 - The 90-day desired outcomes framework: how Michele sharpens the hire before searching
• 17:45 - Why most A-player candidates won't even look at sub-six-figure listings
• 19:49 - How to tailor your resume without lying
• 28:22 - What makes a candidate unforgettable
• 35:26 - Michele's honest take on AI replacing jobs, and where she's hopeful and scared
  

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Connect with Michele Lambert:
Website: https://bellaconnections.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michele-lambert-66792395/
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/michele.lambert.14811 

=================================

About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].

Most marketers chase what's trending. Kristen Palmer has spent two decades identifying what never stops working.

What you will learn:

• Why the webinar funnel is generating six and seven figure weeks in 2026 and how to build one that converts
• Live vs. evergreen: which price points demand which format and why cold audiences cannot handle high ticket
• What a real eight-figure audit actually uncovers (and why it will make you want to audit your own funnels today)
• Where AI is most dangerous for marketing teams and how to set rules of engagement before it creates chaos
• How Kristen replaced a project manager role with an EA and an AI agent connected to ClickUp and Slack

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About Kristen Palmer:
Fractional CMO and founder of 5D Strategy. Nearly two decades in direct response and health and wellness, including Agora Publishing where she helped 10x their affiliate program. Specializes in moving eight-figure brands toward nine and ten figures by fixing marketing and cross-functional systems simultaneously.

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Key moments:

• 06:31 The one marketing principle that will still work 20 years from now
• 08:03 Why the webinar funnel is making a full comeback in 2026
• 11:13 Three webinar funnels running at the same time: how it actually works
• 25:24 Eight-figure companies that still do not know their own metrics
• 28:47 Real audit finds: broken calendars, two brand guides, two ICPs in circulation
• 34:10 The AI skill managing a 10-person video team via ClickUp and Slack
• 36:40 The AI media buyer skill: 8 weeks in and already calling campaigns accurately

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Connect with Kristen Palmer:
Website: https://5dstrategy.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenpalmer/
Email: [email protected]    

Calendly: https://calendly.com/kristinpalmer 

=================================

About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].

Most supplement companies need a doctor, a media budget, and a team. Paul Lawrence built Naturecast with none of those things. What he had instead was a ruthless understanding of copy, a willingness to outlast everyone else, and a list so loyal that 40% of his recent orders came from subscribers who had been with him for five years or more.

What you'll learn:

• How Paul reverse-engineered a predictable customer acquisition system before the internet existed, with a one-page flyer and a 3.5% response rate he could bank on
• Why copy built around a mechanism outperforms copy built around personality, and how Paul used that insight to build his biggest supplement seller
• How JV swaps became his primary growth channel and why finding the right partners matters more than having a massive budget
• The email-first business model that generates consistent revenue from a 50+ market that buys on trust and stays for years
• What Paul would do differently if he launched Naturecast today, and why he would skip the info products and go straight to supplements

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About Paul Lawrence:
Paul Lawrence is the founder of Naturecast, a lean direct response supplement business with over 30 products. He built his foundation in direct mail before discovering copywriting through a mentorship with Agora legend Mark Ford. His promotions have generated millions in sales, and he has built a subscriber list that continues to produce revenue years after subscribers first joined.

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Key moments:

• The pool cleaning flyer that taught Paul everything he needed to know about CAC and conversion before those terms existed
• How a ballroom dance instructor gig led to a mentorship with Mark Ford and a $6,500/month royalty check at 2%
• Why negative spend works for large operators but not lean ones, and how Paul structured his business around that reality

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Connect with Paul Lawrence:

Email: [email protected] (Use subject line: "Heard you on Shmuel’s podcast") Website: naturecastproducts.com

=================================

About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].

If your business is stuck in low ticket, you may be funding your own slow decline. Kyle Kostechka, former ClickBank performance marketing leader and advisor at Trident Growth, makes the case for why high ticket has shifted from "nice to have" to essential in this economy and what that means for how you buy traffic, build funnels, and think about 2026.

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What you'll learn:

• Why targeting premium buyers is now a survival strategy, not just a growth lever, and how the current economy backs that up with data
• How a $27 front end product can justify a $200 CPA when the high ticket backend is structured correctly
• The types of high ticket offers almost any business can bolt on right now: coaching, done-for-you, access, masterminds, and premium customization
• Why Meta's Andromeda update is penalizing aggressive VSLs and what a compliant, converting funnel actually looks like in 2026
• Why Connected TV is the most underpriced paid media inventory available right now and how to get in before the big budgets follow
• How Kyle's team deployed an AI support agent that took a Hebrew-speaking customer from a 2 AM refund request to buying more products

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About Kyle Kostechka:

Kyle spent over a decade at ClickBank mastering performance marketing at scale. He now runs Triton Growth, a venture studio focused on high ticket offer ascension, affiliate strategy, and premium product development. He has spoken from stages on Connected TV and AI-driven marketing, and works with brands building offer structures that can survive and thrive in today's market.

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Connect with Kyle Kostechka:

Email: [email protected] (reach out for a free affiliate program audit or a free high ticket offer assessment… Just tell him Shmuel sent you!)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-kostechka-aa0b504/ 

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Key moments:

• 01:44 - Why high ticket is a critical survival move in a contracting economy
• 07:25 - What price point actually defines high ticket ($10K is the floor)
• 11:24 - The $27 front end with a $200 CPA: how high ticket transforms your media buying math
• 25:39 - The death of aggressive marketing (not TSLs) and what Meta's algorithm is actually seeing
• 32:06 - Channel breakdown: Meta, YouTube, Native, and why Connected TV is the next big move
• 42:22 - How Kyle reduced headcount substantially without losing revenue or output using AI
• 51:15 - How to build AI tools for your business without blowing your budget or losing control of your data

=================================

About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email [email protected].