In Episode 14 of the What's Working Pod, we sit down with Prudence Millsap, co-founder of Beauty by Earth, to unpack the exact strategies she used to build one of the most successful bootstrapped beauty brands on the internet.

Prudence pulls back the curtain on how taking TikTok Shop in-house catapulted them to $700k/month, and how that external traffic miraculously slashed their Amazon ad spend by 34% while increasing top-line revenue. We dive deep into the gritty reality of bootstrapping with just $20,000, why she insists on US manufacturing, and how she maintains a shockingly low 4-7% OpEx using an in-house Texas warehouse and Latin American offshore talent.

Beyond the business, Prudence shares her refreshing philosophy on personal branding, how she balances entrepreneurship with family life, and why she recently sold off a brick-and-mortar business to stay hyper-focused on DTC.

Key Takeaways:

• The TikTok Shop "All-In" Strategy: After burning $20k/month on agency retainers with zero growth, Prudence brought TikTok in-house and cracked the algorithm by aggressively seeding 30-40 product units a day.
• The Amazon Halo Effect is Real: Generating external demand on TikTok allowed Beauty by Earth to lower their Amazon ad spend by 34.2% year-over-year while actually growing their top-line revenue by 33.3%.
• Ruthless Financial Discipline: Prudence built the brand off an initial $20,000 investment. She took zero distributions in year one, lived exclusively off her husband's income, and ran the business purely on credit cards for the first 6-7 years.
• US Manufacturing: Manufacturing 100% of their formulas in the US is more expensive upfront, but it is exactly what their consumer wants and protects them from high finished-goods tariffs.
• Hyper-Lean Operations: Beauty by Earth operates on a 4-7% OpEx. They achieve this by running their own warehouse in Texas and heavily leveraging offshore talent in Latin America for their growth team.

Connect with Prudence:

• Follow Prudence on X: https://x.com/MillPrue

Connect with the hosts:

• Follow Isaac on X: https://x.com/theisaacmed
• Follow Zain on X: https://x.com/NotZainAgain

Production & Scaling Partners:

• This video is fully edited and produced by Content Forge. Need DFY YouTube organic for your brand or full-service editing for your YouTube channel? Get a free consultation here: https://getcontentforge.com/
• Need help launching or scaling your brand on TikTok Shop? Book a free consultation with Zain at: https://zainith.agency/

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro & The TikTok Shop Strategy Hook
00:39 - Cracking TikTok Shop & Seeding Strategy
01:45 - The Amazon Halo Effect
02:35 - Why Expensive TikTok Agencies Failed
06:45 - Dialing in Amazon PPC & Slashing Ad Spend
09:36 - Bootstrapping from $20k
11:41 - Standing Out in the Beauty Market & K-Beauty
17:49 - Navigating Business with a Co-Founder
19:14 - Why They Avoid Retail (Sephora, Ulta)
21:51 - The Anti-Personal Brand Philosophy
26:37 - Quitting the 9-to-5 & Building While Parenting
29:04 - Using AI (Claude) for Market Research
30:53 - US Manufacturing vs. China
33:13 - Running a 4-7% OpEx with Offshore Talent
34:57 - The ROI of Hiring a Fractional CFO
37:58 - Killing Distractions: Selling a Brick & Mortar Business

#tiktokshop #AmazonSeller #Ecommerce #BeautyBrand #WhatsWorkingPod

Nik Sharma sold his agency Sharma Brands for a reason most people miss, and now he's building entire DTC brands using only AI, from ads to assets. In this episode of What's Working Podcast, Nik breaks down the exact move that led him to sell Sharma Brands through a reverse RFP process, why he wanted a blank slate going into January, and how he went from running one of the most recognized DTC agencies to becoming Chief Growth Officer at Lunar Solar while quietly launching an AI first brand holdco on the side.

He walks through launching a health and wellness brand using nothing but AI, covering static ads, UGC, copywriting, and design briefs, including what happened when they finally commissioned a real photo shoot. Nik introduces the concept of the creative supply chain, the idea that brands don't fail because of bad products or poor media buying, but because they run out of creative to feed the machine. He explains every format of creative a brand needs, how to build an endless supply behind it, and what most agencies get wrong. The conversation also covers whether services still have a real moat in an AI world, why taste is the only durable advantage left, how he's validating new brands for under $150K before scaling, and what he learned from watching brand incubators raise millions and still fail.

Nik also shares his personal brand strategy, why he's most bullish on Twitter and YouTube, and what he'd do differently building a personal brand from scratch today. If you're running an agency, building a DTC brand, or figuring out where AI fits in your business in 2025, this episode is essential. Nik Sharma is a DTC operator and former founder of Sharma Brands, now Chief Growth Officer at Lunar Solar.

Key Takeaways:

• AI is a tool, not a replacement for "taste": While AI is democratizing software and automating lower-level tasks, human taste and strategic direction are becoming the ultimate moats for both brands and agencies.
• The "Creative Supply Chain" is the biggest growth bottleneck: Brands trying to scale from $50M to $100M usually don't fail because of a bad product or bad media buying—they fail because they haven't built a system to constantly generate a diverse, never-ending supply of ad creatives.

Connect with Nik:

• Follow Nik on X: https://x.com/mrsharma

Connect with the hosts:

• Follow Isaac on X: https://x.com/theisaacmed
• Follow Zain on X: https://x.com/NotZainAgain

Production & Scaling Partners:

• This video is fully edited and produced by Content Forge. Need DFY YouTube organic for your brand or full-service editing for your YouTube channel? Get a free consultation here: https://getcontentforge.com/
• Need help launching or scaling your brand on TikTok Shop? Book a free consultation with Zain at: https://zainith.agency/

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:34 - Who Is Nik Sharma?
01:31 - Why He Sold His Agency
04:17 - His AI Wake-Up Call
05:13 - Do Services Still Have a Moat?
07:42 - Launching a Brand With Just AI
08:39 - What Categories He's Building In
12:10 - The 70% Ads Budget Future
13:06 - AI Video Ads That Actually Work
15:12 - The Creative Supply Chain Explained
18:01 - Will AI Kill Jobs?
21:29 - How to Build a Personal Brand Today
23:47 - Twitter vs YouTube vs LinkedIn
27:31 - The Holdco Model
32:35 - Where to Follow Nik

#NikSharma #Ecommerce #WhatsWorkingPodcast

Roman Khan has spent the last decade building, scaling, and acquiring e-commerce brands, taking his portfolio to nine figures in revenue. From nearly going bankrupt to achieving a 3% OpEx and netting eight figures in EBITDA, Roman has mastered the mechanics of highly profitable DTC businesses. Now, he’s shifting his focus from private equity to the highly inefficient public markets.

In Episode 12 of What's Working, Roman breaks down his tactical playbooks for scaling massive e-commerce brands. He explains how to spot a winning product category using Google Trends, why the "Bryan Johnson" strategy is crucial for brand awareness, and how to use his PC1, PC2, and PC3 framework to maximize cash distributions. Plus, discover why he believes TikTok fundamentally changed the influencer game and why he thinks Hong Kong is the ultimate home base for any serious e-commerce entrepreneur.

Key Takeaways:

• Spotting the Mega-Trend: A successful brand requires the right category at the right time. Roman explains how to use search volume data and find the "whale" in a market to guarantee your product has massive tailwinds.
• Public vs. Private M&A: Roman is shifting his focus to public micro-cap companies, explaining that public markets are often mispriced. You can sometimes buy companies for less than their cash on hand or cut excess bloat to massively multiply your returns.
• The TikTok Shift: TikTok completely removed the "S-curve" of follower dependency, bringing a true merit-based culture to influencer marketing and top-of-funnel brand awareness.
• The Profit Contribution (PC) Framework: Roman breaks down how he achieves eight figures in EBITDA by meticulously tracking three levels of profit contribution (PC1, PC2, PC3) and driving revenue per employee to over $3 million.
• Cash Flow & Float: Why negotiating net-90 payment terms and shrinking production lead times is the ultimate secret to taking actual cash distributions off the table every single month.

Connect with Roman:

• Follow Roman on X: https://x.com/RomanEcom

Connect with the hosts:

• Follow Isaac on X: https://x.com/theisaacmed
• Follow Zain on X: https://x.com/NotZainAgain

Production & Scaling Partners:

• This video is fully edited and produced by Content Forge. Need DFY YouTube organic for your brand or full-service editing for your YouTube channel? Get a free consultation here: https://getcontentforge.com/
• Need help launching or scaling your brand on TikTok Shop? Book a free consultation with Zain at: https://zainith.agency/

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro & Roman's 9-Figure E-com Journey
03:32 - First Principles: What Makes a Good E-commerce Brand?
08:12 - The "Whale" Strategy & Scaling Raycon
09:51 - Tracking Google Keyword Trends for Product Validation
15:26 - Why Public E-com Markets Are Undervalued Right Now
24:26 - TikTok Shop vs. Meta Ads: Margins & Conversions
27:48 - Hitting a 3% OpEx & $3M Revenue per Employee
31:30 - Slashing Logistics & Packaging Costs by 20%
35:00 - The PC1, PC2, PC3 Profit Framework Explained
37:46 - Maximizing Cash Flow & Managing Payment Terms
44:25 - Why Hong Kong is Still the Best Base for E-commerce
46:13 - Outro & Where to Find Roman

#BusinessStrategy #EcommerceTips #WealthBuilding

Chris Meade took the ultimate leap of faith, pulling his $7,000 life savings from a 401k to build Crossnet. By age 27, he had grown the invented sport into a massive $10 million business netting $2 million in EBITDA. Today, he has moved away from the brutal grind of physical products to focus on high-cash-flow brick-and-mortar Pilates studios and the ultra-exclusive Founders Club.

In Episode 11 of What's Working, Chris breaks down his incredibly diverse entrepreneurial journey. He reveals the harsh realities of seasonal, heavy-product e-commerce businesses, how he made $60k a month writing a newsletter, and why he eventually walked away from lucrative sponsorships to protect the integrity of his community. Plus, discover how he's scaling his Pilates studios to a 4-month payback period with zero paid marketing, and exactly how Founders Club uses Claude AI to run customer service and match members.

Key Takeaways:

• Brick & Mortar vs. E-com: Physical businesses with great margin profiles generate real cash every single day without the inventory tax traps of DTC. Chris's Pilates studios are seeing a 4-month payback period with $0 in paid marketing, smashing the industry standard of 18 months.
• The Problem with Sponsors: Chris built a newsletter that generated up to $60,000 a month in sponsorships. However, he realized that relying on sponsor money compromises your integrity when making recommendations and eventually "sucks the soul out of everything".
• AI for Unified Brand Voice: To keep customer interactions consistent across 40 employees, Chris exported five years of newsletters and customer service data into Claude to create a master "brand voice".
• AI-Curated Community Matching: Founders Club uses proprietary AI tools to analyze 200 minutes of entry interviews alongside Slack data, perfectly matching founders based on shared experiences and interests.

Connect with Chris:

• Follow Chris on X: https://x.com/thechrismeade

Connect with the hosts:

• Follow Isaac on X: https://x.com/theisaacmed
• Follow Zain on X: https://x.com/NotZainAgain

Production & Scaling Partners:

• This video is fully edited and produced by Content Forge. Need DFY YouTube organic for your brand or full-service editing for your YouTube channel? Get a free consultation here: https://getcontentforge.com/
• Need help launching or scaling your brand on TikTok Shop? Book a free consultation with Zain at: https://zainith.agency/

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro & The Crossnet Origin Story
01:31 - The Brutal Reality of Seasonal E-com Businesses
04:48 - Writing a Newsletter & Making $60k/Month from Sponsors
06:38 - Hosting Dinners for 4,000 Founders Around the World
08:03 - Why Sponsorships Destroy Community Integrity
09:15 - Pivoting to Brick & Mortar: The Pilates Studio Empire
12:29 - Achieving a 4-Month Payback Period with $0 Paid Ads
15:48 - The Launch & Explosive Growth of Founders Club
21:48 - Rejecting E-com Grifters & Fake "Gurus"
23:31 - Taking the Leap: Funding a Startup with a $7k 401k
27:46 - AI-Powered "Curated Connections" for Founders
30:05 - Using Claude to Build a Unified Brand Voice for 40 Employees
32:50 - Why the Average Age of Founders Club is 40
34:59 - Outro & Where to Find Chris

Jason Levin went from ghostwriting for tech founders to going undercover in the meme world, ultimately raising a $3 million seed round from industry giants like Balaji Srinivasan to build Meme Lord an AI-powered SaaS platform combining Google Trends and Canva for marketers.

In Episode 10 of What's Working, Jason breaks down why "Memes Make Millions" isn't just a catchy book title, but a billion-dollar reality. He pulls back the curtain on "memetic warfare," explaining how everyone from massive crypto exchanges to the Ukrainian government relies on memes to control the narrative. Jason also rips into the current state of "AI slop," explains why e-commerce founders need to stop hosting lazy networking dinners, and reveals why LinkedIn is currently the greatest humor arbitrage opportunity on the internet.

Key Takeaways:

• The LinkedIn Humor Arbitrage: LinkedIn is starved for entertainment because users are terrified of getting fired. Posting unhinged, humorous content on a hyper-professional platform creates a massive opportunity to stand out and go viral.
• Stop Hosting Lazy Networking Dinners: Founder dinners are overplayed and lazy, especially for bootstrapped DTC brands trying to copy cash-rich SaaS companies. To actually generate ROI, create bizarre, non-eating experiences or public stunts (like renting a movie theater to watch Instagram Reels).
• The "AI Founder" Fallacy: While automated, faceless AI marketing sounds genius to introverted software engineers, it entirely misses the human element required to build trust, ultimately resulting in massive customer churn.
• Memes Are the Oldest Marketing Form: Humor isn't a new internet trend; it's the oldest form of marketing. Memes (image + text) are simply the most information-dense, modern evolution of classic advertising.

Connect with Jason & Meme Lord:

• Follow Jason on X: https://x.com/iamjasonlevin
• Check out the software: https://memelord.com/

Connect with the hosts:

• Follow Isaac on X: https://x.com/theisaacmed
• Follow Zain on X: https://x.com/NotZainAgain

Production & Scaling Partners:

• This video is fully edited and produced by Content Forge. Need DFY YouTube organic for your brand or full-service editing for your YouTube channel? Get a free consultation here: https://getcontentforge.com/
• Need help launching or scaling your brand on TikTok Shop? Book a free consultation with Zain at: https://zainith.agency/

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro & The Power of Memes
00:55 - What is Meme Lord?
02:43 - "Memetic Warfare" & Government Memes
04:00 - Raising $3M from Balaji & Sam Lessin
04:26 - Why Boring Enterprise Companies Need Humor
07:44 - Will Social Platforms Ban Memes?
09:37 - The Problem with Introverted "AI Founders"
11:27 - Renting a Movie Theater for Instagram Reels
13:14 - Why E-com Founders Need to Stop Hosting Dinners
18:34 - Should Luxury Brands Use Memes?
20:41 - The LinkedIn Humor Arbitrage
21:56 - Why Reddit is the Worst Platform on the Internet
23:54 - Becoming Un-Cancelable
25:03 - The NY Governor Race Hit Pieces
26:34 - How Record Labels Use Memes to Break Indie Music
27:22 - Outro & Where to Find Jason

#WhatsWorkingPodcast #JasonLevin #MemeLord #MemeMarketing #B2BMarketing #EcommerceGrowth #AI

Maxwell Maher went from owning a failing moving company to building "Clean Girl" a media juggernaut that racked up 18 billion views and 27 million followers in under two years. Now, his products are sitting on the shelves of 5,000 stores across the country, including Target and Walmart.

In this episode of What's Working, Maxwell breaks down his insane entrepreneurial journey: from knocking on doors at age 13 for landscaping gigs to scaling a massive blue-collar moving company.

He reveals why he eventually pivoted to content creation, how he engineered viral success for the Clean Girl brand, and the exact AI-powered feedback loop his team uses to optimize every single upload. Plus, Maxwell drops contrarian advice on why you should strictly use an iPhone to shoot videos and why high-production value might actually be hurting your brand's reach.

Key Takeaways:

• The "Cost Per Million Watch Hours" Metric: Views are a vanity metric. To build a sustainable media empire, you must optimize for watch time efficiency and track exactly what it costs your business to acquire a million hours of human attention.
• Expensive Cameras Hurt Virality: Data analysis across billions of views shows that craft elements (perfect lighting, 4K cameras, color grading) account for less than 1% of a video's success. An iPhone workflow feels more native to the feed and significantly reduces production bottlenecks.
• Don't Enter "Broke" Industries: Maxwell built a moving company netting $170k/year in pure profit but struggled to exit because his competitors couldn't afford to buy him out. Ensure your industry has well-capitalized strategic buyers before diving in.

Connect with Maxwell & Clean Girl:

• Follow Maxwell on X: https://x.com/Maxwell_Maher
• Check out the Clean Girl YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@_The_Clean_Girl

Connect with the hosts:

• Follow Isaac on X: https://x.com/theisaacmed
• Follow Zain on X: https://x.com/NotZainAgain

Production & Scaling Partners:

• This video is fully edited and produced by Content Forge. Need DFY YouTube organic for your brand or full-service editing for your YouTube channel? Get a free consultation here: https://getcontentforge.com/
• Need help launching or scaling your brand on TikTok Shop? Book a free consultation with Zain at: https://zainith.agency/

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro & The 18 Billion View Empire
01:59 - The Secret to 20 Million YouTube Subscribers
04:31 - Quality vs. Quantity in Content Creation
06:02 - Building an AI Feedback Loop for Viral Videos
08:05 - The Ultimate Metric: Cost Per Million Watch Hours
10:40 - Why YouTube Shorts Don't Convert (And What Does)
12:00 - The Red Bull Strategy for Target & Walmart Retail
18:23 - From $15/hr Landscaping to Scaling a Moving Company
23:09 - The Danger of Building Businesses in "Broke" Industries
27:23 - The Future of Crypto & Meme Coins
31:06 - How to Start a Viral Brand from Scratch Today
34:32 - Will AI Content Replace Real Creators?
37:25 - Why iPhone Workflows Destroy Expensive Cameras
42:53 - Outro & Where to Find Maxwell

#WhatsWorkingPodcast #MaxwellMaher #CleanGirl #YouTubeShorts #ViralContent #EcommerceGrowth #RetailStrategy #CreatorEconomy

Colin McGuire acquired a dormant Australian hair care brand and scaled it to $7 million in just 18 months. His DTC growth was so explosive that Target's lead retail buyer actually filled out a customer service form on his website begging to stock the product.

In this episode of What's Working, Colin breaks down his incredible e-commerce journey, starting from running Facebook's earliest "Dark Post" ads in 2010 to building an agency that acquired a brand portfolio doing $84 million in top-line revenue. He reveals the exact playbook he used to revive Glimmr, how to successfully finance a mass retail launch, and the shocking data behind the "Retail Halo" effect.

Key Takeaways:

• The Retail Halo Effect: A 37-week tracking study proved that $0.32 of every single dollar spent on Meta ads flowed directly through to Target in-store sales.
• Mass Retail Cash Flow: Launching into mass retail requires serious financial engineering; Colin utilized a $350,000 line of credit from HighBeam and leveraged JP Morgan's Target program to secure 72-hour payment terms.
• Go DTC First to Win Retail: Retailers like Target aren't trying to compete with Walmart on value, they want digitally native brands that already have engineered cultural relevance on TikTok and Instagram.
• Track Your Numbers Manually: Instead of over-automating dashboards early on, manually updating blended retail metrics in a spreadsheet forces you to "feel" your numbers, allowing for highly confident ad scaling decisions.
• The 3-Pronged Social Affiliate Playbook: Glimmr engineered virality by coordinating massive volumes of micro-affiliates, B-tier creators, and A-list influencers to post in waves, forcing the algorithm to recognize their relevance.

Connect with Colin & Glimmr:

• Follow Colin on X: https://x.com/colinvmcguire

Connect with the hosts:

• Follow Isaac on X: https://x.com/theisaacmed

Production & Scaling Partners:

• This video is fully edited and produced by Content Forge. Need DFY YouTube organic for your brand or full-service editing for your YouTube channel? Get a free consultation here: https://getcontentforge.com/
• Need help launching or scaling your brand on TikTok Shop? Book a free consultation with Zain at: https://zainith.agency/

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro & The Glimmr Target Story
00:54 - Accidentally Becoming an Early Facebook Advertiser in 2010
04:00 - From Agency Owner to Acquiring an $84M Brand Portfolio
05:52 - Acquiring a Dormant Australian Brand (Glimmr)
08:18 - Scaling to $7 Million in 18 Months via Meta & TikTok Shop
09:09 - The 3-Pronged Social Affiliate Strategy
13:30 - How Target's Lead Buyer Begged to Stock Glimmr
18:43 - Financing Mass Retail (HighBeam & JP Morgan)
20:04 - The "Retail Halo" Study: $0.32 of Every Meta Dollar Goes to Target
23:44 - Why You Should Track Retail Metrics Manually
24:49 - Expanding Full-Chain & Raising a Seed Round
28:27 - Outro & Where to Find Colin

#WhatsWorkingPodcast #ColinMcGuire #EcommerceGrowth #RetailStrategy #MetaAds #TikTokShop #DTCBrands

Connor MacDonald helped scale Ridge from a couple million in revenue to over $200 million a year. How? By ditching the traditional agency model, going in-house, and ruthlessly optimizing everything from growth-hacking subreddits to coining brand-new e-commerce metrics.

In Episode 7 of What's Working, Connor (CMO of Ridge and host of the Marketing Operators podcast) breaks down his wild origin story of buying Ethereum at $12 just to pay for Reddit upvotes.

He reveals Ridge's exact strategy for unlocking TikTok Shop, explaining why you don't need thousands of winning creators to drive massive GMV. Connor also steps onto a soapbox to deliver a reality check on AI: stop building messy Zapier automations and start fixing your core data infrastructure. Finally, he coins a brilliant new e-commerce metric the "Attention Value of Inventory."

Key Takeaways:

• The Attention Value of Inventory (AVI): Drops and flashy new products generate disproportionate top-of-funnel clicks. Even if customers ultimately buy your standard core products, you need that flashy inventory to run ads against. Don't soft-launch and quietly sell out of your most attention-grabbing SKUs.
• The TikTok Shop Creator Math: You don't need thousands of winning affiliates. Connor reveals that for some of the biggest brands on the platform, just 12 creators are driving up to 60% of their total TikTok Shop GMV.
• Repurposing TikTok for Meta: Ridge’s main goal for TikTok Shop isn't just native platform revenue it's building a massive creator army to generate high-performing UGC, securing the usage rights, and scaling those winning videos on Meta and YouTube Shorts.
• Fix Your Data Before Adding AI: The real AI unlock comes from having pristine naming conventions and clean data infrastructure (like local transcripts and MCPs) that LLMs like Claude can easily query, not from chaining together fragile automation tools.

Connect with Connor & Ridge:

• Follow Connor on X: https://x.com/couuor
• Listen to the Marketing Operators Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
• Check out Ridge: https://ridge.com/

Production & Scaling Partners:

• This video is fully edited and produced by Content Forge. Need DFY YouTube organic for your brand or full-service editing for your YouTube channel? Get a free consultation here: https://getcontentforge.com/
• Need help launching or scaling your brand on TikTok Shop? Book a free consultation with Zain at: https://zainith.agency/

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro & The Ridge Growth Story
01:24 - Buying Ethereum at $12 for Reddit Growth Hacks
03:52 - Why Connor & Sean Frank Left the Agency World for Ridge
05:59 - The Value of Hiring Marketers with Agency Experience
09:00 - Ridge's Big Bet on TikTok Shop & Creator Activation
11:31 - Structuring an Affiliate Program (Retainers vs. Commission)
14:40 - Getting Usage Rights to Scale TikTok Ads on Meta
18:38 - Will Instagram Shops Finally Beat TikTok?
27:32 - The Insane Creator Math: 12 Creators, 60% of GMV
33:53 - Connor's Soapbox: Why Clean Data Beats Shiny AI Tools
37:29 - The AI Tech Stack: Local LLMs, MCPs & Querying Transcripts
44:03 - How Ridge Achieved Its Biggest Q1 Ever
47:33 - Coining a New E-com Metric: "Attention Value of Inventory"
50:48 - Outro & Where to Find Connor

#WhatsWorkingPodcast #ConnorMacDonald #RidgeWallet #EcommerceGrowth #TikTokShop #MarketingStrategy #ArtificialIntelligence #DTC

Aaron Orendorff went from an infantry soldier and pastor to burning his life to the ground, only to rebuild it into becoming the Chief Content Officer for The Operators and former Editor in Chief at Shopify Plus.

In Episode 6 of What's Working, dive into his wild journey of faking Wix blogs to land bylines in the NYT, shaping the early days of Shopify Plus enterprise, and building the DTC Index at Common Thread Collective. Aaron drops pure alpha on why agencies fail when trying to launch their own brands, the difference between personalization and segmentation, and why AI will never replace writers with actual "skin in the game."

Key Takeaways:

• The Agency Trap: Why an agency launching its own DTC brand is usually a massive mismanagement of resources. It rarely works, though it does give you "skin in the game" to sell to clients.
• AI is a Multiplier, Not a Creator: AI will not supplant the subject matter expert with real-world expertise and empathy. Use AI as a multiplier to repurpose your best ideas, not to generate them from scratch.
• The SEO Mention Strategy: Aaron finessed his way into a career at Shopify by aggressively writing high-value content and tagging the exact decision-makers he wanted to work with on social media.
• Problem-First Marketing: Discover the difference between simply segmenting an audience and finding the true emotional resonance that actually solves a customer's problem.

Connect with Aaron & The Operators:

• Follow Aaron on X: https://x.com/AaronOrendorff
• Follow Aaron on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronorendorff
• Check out the new AI Operators Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuGneytUApsb7SEynqoZ0ug

Production & Scaling Partners:

• This video is fully edited and produced by Content Forge. Need DFY YouTube organic for your brand or full-service editing for your YouTube channel? Get a free consultation here: https://getcontentforge.com/
• Need help launching or scaling your brand on TikTok Shop? Book a free consultation with Zain at: https://zainith.agency/

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro & The Content Forge Shoutout
04:43 - Aaron's Wild Background: Infantry & Pastor
12:33 - Burning His Life Down & Rebuilding in Content
16:12 - Faking Wix Blogs & Pitching the NYT
18:21 - The Cold Pitch That Landed Shopify Plus
23:01 - Marketing First Principles: Personalization vs. Segmentation
29:06 - Joining CTC & Building the DTC Index
36:59 - Why Agencies Should NEVER Start E-com Brands
42:03 - Will AI Supplant Real Writers?
48:56 - Announcing the AI Operators Podcast
55:04 - Outro & Where to Find Aaron

#WhatsWorkingPodcast #AaronOrendorff #TheOperators #ShopifyPlus #EcommerceMarketing #ContentStrategy #AIWriters

What if your best employee wasn't human?

Meet "Liam", the autonomous Open Claude AI agent fully integrated into Asana and Slack, actively running data analysis, generating action items, and doing meeting prep for an elite agency.

In Episode 5 of What's Working, Cherene and Jacob from Growth Capital Co. pull back the curtain on building a truly AI-native growth agency. They share their journey from Common Thread Collective and Ilia Beauty to creating an infrastructure where AI agents act as primary software users. Cherene and Jacob drop massive reality checks on the state of AI in e-commerce, explaining why AI creative completely lacks "taste," why forcing your current employees to learn AI will fail, and why organic social is still the most vital hire for a new brand.

Key Takeaways:

• The "Liam" Infrastructure: To make an AI agent actually useful, you need a flawless data warehouse. An agent is only as powerful as the quantitative and qualitative data it can seamlessly access.
• AI Creative Lacks "Taste": Despite the hype, fully AI-generated UGC is flopping for premium brands because it lacks the psychological triggers and intimate brand knowledge needed to convert.
• The Top-Down AI Rule: You cannot expect employees with full-time jobs to figure out AI on their own. AI adoption will only work if the CEO leads by example and forces a top-down workflow shift.
• Hire for Organic Social First: If starting a brand today, skip the "AI Strategist". Hire someone who can create natively entertaining organic social content, as algorithms are starting to penalize AI "slop".

Connect with Cherene, Jacob & Growth Capital Co:

• Follow Cherene on X: https://x.com/ChereneAubert
• Follow Jacob on X: https://x.com/jacob_posel
• Check out the agency: Growth Capital Co

Production & Scaling Partners:

• This video is fully edited and produced by Content Forge. Need DFY YouTube organic for your brand or full-service editing for your YouTube channel? Get a free consultation here: https://getcontentforge.com/
• Need help launching or scaling your brand on TikTok Shop? Book a free consultation with Zain at: https://zainith.agency/

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro & The Highest Leverage Activity
00:24 - Meet "Liam" the Autonomous AI Agent
03:20 - Building "Oasis" & Data Infrastructure for AI
05:25 - Cherene’s Career: From Shark Tank Brands to Ilia Beauty
07:31 - Jacob's Career: Why Logistics AI Failed & Moving to CTC
11:57 - The Launch of Growth Capital Co.
15:49 - Where Should E-com Brands Install AI First?
19:32 - Why Software Adoption is So Hard for Employees
21:17 - Will AI Actually Replace Labor?
28:59 - The Hidden P&L Costs of Managing People
32:36 - Start with Organic Social, Not AI Strategists
35:21 - Is "CEO Coding" a High-Leverage Activity?
41:42 - Why AI Creative Agencies Are Flopping
46:29 - Cherene’s TikTok Shop Hair Secrets
47:27 - Outro & Where to Find Growth Capital Co.

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