Brandon Blahnik served as Made In’s Director of Customer Experience from 2020 until early 2022. His role at Made In included overseeing all customer-facing teams such as phone, chat, email, and social, and working strategically with business partners to improve products and solve problems. Prior to Made In, Brandon worked for over a decade in service roles. His career began with the Orlando Magic, where an internship turned into a senior Premium Client Services Manager role. He also served as He...
Feb 10, 2022•48 min•Ep 170•Transcript available on Metacast Ashvin Melwani is Co-Founder & CMO of Obvi, one of the world’s fastest growing health & nutrition brands. Since launching in 2019, Obvi has become a pioneering brand in the collagen space, shattering 8 figures in sales with distribution all over the globe. Before Obvi, Ash co-founded Ghost3Media, a digital advertising & growth agency managing over $15M of adspend. 09:55 - Form a supportive community After they had a solid customer base, Obvi invited customers to be a part of a Facebook group. Wi...
Feb 08, 2022•52 min•Ep 169•Transcript available on Metacast Matt Lanter is OpenStore’s Head of Product and Co-Founder. Matt served as an engineering and product leader at Opendoor, Facebook and Apple. He was the Chief of Staff at Founders Fund where he worked closely with entrepreneurs building the next set of companies. OpenStore provides life-changing liquidity to Shopify business entrepreneurs that are ready to sell their business so they can move on to what's next. Anyone can get a free, no obligation offer for their business within 24 hours by visit...
Feb 03, 2022•52 min•Ep 168•Transcript available on Metacast Andrew Benin is the co-founder & CEO of Graza, a Brooklyn based DTC brand reimagining extra-virgin olive oil. Andrew previously served at DTC powerhouses including Magic Spoon, Casper, & Warby Parker where he worked in key operational roles. His new brand, Graza, had one of the most successful CPG launches of 2022. 3:29 - Becoming a CPG addict Andrew got his start working for hot DTC Brands like Warby Parker, Casper, and Magic Spoon. It was a thrilling environment, but he knew he wanted to build...
Feb 01, 2022•37 min•Ep 167•Transcript available on Metacast 8:21 - Pivoting from SaaS to ecommerce Raphael was surrounded by Saas founders, but followed his instincts when he found himself far more interested in the ecommerce space. “I started SplitBase when most of my friends were SaaS founders, because that's what I was familiar with. I always like, well, SplitBase is going to be a conversion optimization agency for SaaS companies. Now a couple of things. One, I think it would have been better positioned as a churn reduction agency maybe, or something ...
Jan 27, 2022•59 min•Ep 166•Transcript available on Metacast 4:47 - When goals make sense Goals can be a waste of time at a young company. But once you grow, you need to figure out what to prioritize. I think to start off a company where you're at zero and come up with this master plan and all these OKRs and goals, I think it's just a huge waste of time. You should just spend more of that time talking to customers and figuring out building something that they need enough. Because if you don't have product-market fit, what's the point of goals? The point o...
Jan 25, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep 165•Transcript available on Metacast 1:26 - Rebuilding the vitamin category Sara realized that traditional vitamins weren’t built in a way to truly optimize health. “I was starting to struggle out of nowhere really with chronic inflammation, digestion, sleep issues, you name it. And I've always considered myself a relatively healthy person. I had a healthy diet. I didn't really know what was going on. Went through a lot of allergy tests and blood tests and found out that I had a lot of gaps in my diet. Because even if you eat a wel...
Jan 19, 2022•42 min•Ep 164•Transcript available on Metacast 4:36 - Embracing clean beauty A long-time advocate of health and clean ingredients, Bobbi Brown founded Jones Road Beauty. The challenge was to make clean versions of all the best products. “Bobbi parted ways with her company that she founded and had a non-compete. And most people would be retiring at that age, but she just didn't feel done. And she felt like she had so much that she wanted to teach and so much that she wanted to continue to do. And part of it is throughout her journey she has g...
Jan 17, 2022•34 min•Ep 163•Transcript available on Metacast Key Takeaways 3:35 - Starting with Kickstarter Jarod and his partners knew they could have gone through the formal fundraising process, but wanted to get market validation first. “Having some startup cash to kind of get going, especially when you're talking about a CPG brand, it definitely helps a lot for a lot of levers. For us, sure, we could've gone out and raised money. But you know, that's like a 3-6, maybe 9-month process to go get a full round of fundraising. And we just don't want to do ...
Jan 12, 2022•39 min•Ep 162•Transcript available on Metacast During this episode, you will learn about; [00:05] What’s in for you in today’s episode [01:36] Who’s Shane Rostad and his area of specialty [06:34] Typical mistakes that brands make [08:44] Tips to improve your site’s conversion rate [12:48] Things to focus on when brands are collecting customer’s data [16:54] The different ways to gather qualitative data from your customers [19:41] Commercial Break [20:38] Upselling and cross-selling in the business [28:30] How to do the A/B testing for your s...
Jan 10, 2022•38 min•Ep 161•Transcript available on Metacast 9:56 - From bio major to builder Daniel’s journey into entrepreneurship started as the desire to make money for weekend college fun, despite the fact that he didn’t have time to work a traditional job. “I was a biology major. I was actually going to school to be a dentist and. I always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. And that's what drove me. That was interesting. And doing new projects, stuff like that. Obviously, as a 19-year-old kid, I just had no idea what I wanted to do. And the o...
Jan 06, 2022•51 min•Ep 160•Transcript available on Metacast During this episode, you will learn about; [00:16] What’s in for you in today’s episode [01:43] Bailee’s career background information [03:57] What is branding and the areas of business it affects [07:28] The importance of brand guide during the branding process [09:49] Branding your brand in a way that resonates with people [12:16] Validating your branding through social channels [14:01] Promoting your brand in Tik Tok when branding [16:01] Commercial Break [17:04] The secrets to a high perform...
Jan 03, 2022•30 min•Ep 159•Transcript available on Metacast 4:47 - The night CROSSNET was invented Chris and his friends were throwing ideas for a product invention at the wall to see if anything stuck when someone mentioned four-way volleyball. “ESPN was on in the background. Not sure if that motivated it or not, but Mike wrote down four-way beach volleyball. Mike’s one of our other co-founders, grew up playing soccer and basketball. Four-way volleyball net. And we're like, yeah, no shit. That'd be sick. Jumped on Google, and nobody had done it before. ...
Dec 29, 2021•54 min•Ep 158•Transcript available on Metacast [00:16] What’s in for you in today’s episode [01:20] Stephanie career backstory [02:39] Ekster’s customer service before and after Stephanie joined the agency [03:39] The strategy that Stephanie followed in building a scalable team [05:18] The metrics you should focus on to meet customers’ support demands [06:27] Understanding customer psychology when selling to multiple markets [08:56] Lessons that Stephanie learned while building a customer service team [11:08] Qualitative and quantitative mea...
Dec 27, 2021•24 min•Ep 157•Transcript available on Metacast “As you discount your product, you could potentially see better ad conversion.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD “Sometimes when you discount to both new and returning customers, and your margin ends up going down. ” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD We Speak About: [01:17] DTC discounting twitter thread Learn more about how and when to discount In today’s episode of DTC Finds, we’re looking at a Twitter thread by David Rekuc, discussing discounting We’ll dive into this thread and breakdown what he has to say about it as we...
Nov 30, 2021•7 min•Ep 156•Transcript available on Metacast “We're helping brands and agencies learn what creatives are working best and why” @rezakhadjavi #DTCPOD “Teams who take naming conventions really seriously have a really important cultural effect.” @rezakhadjavi #DTCPOD “We want to create an environment where our creative strategy is data driven.” @rezakhadjavi #DTCPOD “People are putting on a lot more of a creative strategist hat and thinking critically about the way that they're positioning their product.”@rezakhadjavi #DTCPOD “Most people don...
Nov 24, 2021•37 min•Ep 155•Transcript available on Metacast “Not all organic creative can be paid creative and not all paid creative can be organic creative” @flexiblefoodie #DTCPOD “If you don't have the right partners in place, it's only going to cost you more down the road, so put time in your creating process.” @flexiblefoodie #DTCPOD “Just because you have the assets you have doesn't mean you have to present them in the way that you have them.” @flexiblefoodie #DTCPOD “People don't want to see product after product after product, and so you need to ...
Nov 19, 2021•30 min•Ep 154•Transcript available on Metacast “It's common nowadays to see lots of discounts around the holiday season, and so why not take this opportunity to really ramp up your sales ” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD “Bundles give you an opportunity to generate more value out of each transaction” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD We Speak About: [00:44] Black friday and cyber monday strategy article [01:47] Rewards and bundle discounts [04:20] Testing new products and categories [06:25] Giving Tuesday Tips and tricks for generating the most value out of black frida...
Nov 17, 2021•8 min•Ep 153•Transcript available on Metacast “We're basically curating all of the Web's emerging brands, culture defining brands all in one place.” @ maggiebethgibson #DTCPOD “We're trying to simplify the vast web of DTC brands that are currently continuing to pop up in the market” @ maggiebethgibson #DTCPOD “We really want to give a voice to underrepresented founders and allow people to shop on their brand values and support the brands that align with those values.” @ maggiebethgibson #DTCPOD “We test and try every product that is on our ...
Nov 12, 2021•29 min•Ep 152•Transcript available on Metacast “An editor’s pick section for your blog is great because you have some really high performing content that maybe is performing well on search or something that you want to highlight specifically that you think is important to helping people and guiding people through the purchase process.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD “Make sure you have some strong internal linking. That's a good SEO that you can do to help improve the performance of your individual blog pages. ” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD We Speak About: [00:39...
Nov 09, 2021•8 min•Ep 151•Transcript available on Metacast “It's really all about the resources that you have and how you can really put that together” @kristenxjones #DTCPOD “We're inclusive, and you have to be consistent in that and really show up for every person that you represent whenever you have that type of branding.” @kristenxjones #DTCPOD “Understanding the customer journey in the beginning, I think, is the most important thing that you can do before getting started with an outline.” @kristenxjones #DTCPOD “You want it to be really clear in th...
Nov 04, 2021•34 min•Ep 150•Transcript available on Metacast “A really good strategy that you can do with SMS heading into Black Friday Cyber Monday is sending an email push for SMS sign ups for early access.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD “SMS is very different than email, in the sense that SMS messages should be more skimmable than email.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD We Speak About: [00:41] Strategies to boost SMS sales and sign ups [04:51] Optimizing the landing page and DTC examples BFCM SMS sign up strategies plus a big landing page guide In today’s episode of DTC Finds...
Nov 02, 2021•13 min•Ep 149•Transcript available on Metacast “We built the brand up to this incredible business that has helped so many women find the right beauty products for them” @itsJoanneCoffey #DTCPOD “There's so much information that people are just putting into your hands, all you have to do is know how to find it and how to use it.” @itsJoanneCoffey #DTCPOD “We're really creating a relatable experience to that customer.” @itsJoanneCoffey #DTCPOD “We work on a very short basis because we want to adapt to trends and we want to have that room and t...
Oct 29, 2021•28 min•Ep 148•Transcript available on Metacast “If you're working on consumer goods, stay focused, double down in that sense before jumping into retail.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD “If you can give some sort of estimate of shipping speed, that's a really good thing to add in” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD We Speak About: [00:57] Awesome twitter thread from Corey Nicholson [06:29] Cushion Lab’s product page Learn more about this DTC data and how to optimize the virtual buying experience In today’s episode of DTC Finds, we’re looking at a great Twitter thread di...
Oct 26, 2021•10 min•Ep 147•Transcript available on Metacast “Influencers have proven organically to be able to create content that engages with people” @TaylorLagace #DTCPOD “We're trying to find as many veins as possible to bleed dry, and once one starts going, we want to lean into that as much as possible.” @TaylorLagace #DTCPOD “People tend to allow human decision making into the matter a little bit too much.” @TaylorLagace #DTCPOD “The only way you lose the only way you miss the opportunity is if you do not put the creative into the account and let F...
Oct 21, 2021•33 min•Ep 146•Transcript available on Metacast “DataMilk analyzes your user’s behavior and then it launches UX changes automatically and then tests them to see how conversion goes.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD “Figure out what is the right discount for your brand that is relevant to your margin.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD We Speak About: [00:20] What does DataMilk do for your brand [03:21] Top DTC holiday campaigns Steal these DTC finds for deals and profits In today’s episode of DTC Finds, we’re looking at a great Twitter thread discussing how 437 DTC bran...
Oct 19, 2021•10 min•Ep 145•Transcript available on Metacast “You need one single unified environment to manage your businesses” @ jbernard23 #DTCPOD “There's such a connectivity between how a digital commerce grows, and you really need to have all of that data in one environment.” @ jbernard23 #DTCPOD “The digital commerce landscape has changed in terms of consumer expectations for speed and shipping costs.” @ jbernard23 #DTCPOD “There's a great opportunity, I think, for innovation still with meeting that need for discoverability and experience for consu...
Oct 15, 2021•30 min•Ep 144•Transcript available on Metacast “Returns don't necessarily mean that someone didn't like your product, it might be that it just wasn't the right product for them.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD “Having a really good process in place for potential exchanges or even outlining that policy is something all stores should be thinking about.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD We Speak About: [01:52] SMS templates you need to steal [03:55] A product that will help you turn returns into exchanges to save revenue Check out these DTC finds for SMS and returns In ...
Oct 12, 2021•8 min•Ep 143•Transcript available on Metacast “I'm thinking very consciously about the impact that I'm having.” @ trevorcarlson1 #DTCPOD “The biggest mistake people can make is assume that their target customer speaks the same way that they do and that they already know everything that they're trying to tell them.” @ trevorcarlson1 #DTCPOD “You're not going to marry somebody on the first date, so why would you expect somebody to buy from you when they don't know who you are.” @ trevorcarlson1 #DTCPOD “You need a large amount of creative to ...
Oct 07, 2021•32 min•Ep 142•Transcript available on Metacast “Mentioning free shipping and returns is something that can help to ease buyer concerns.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD “Put together a link strategy for sending pre-filled carts via text using Shopify permalinks.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD We Speak About: [00:46] Season Three email strategy to ease buyer concern [02:58] Shopify’s SMS link strategy Try this email from Season Three and this SMS link strategy from Shopify In today’s episode of fantastic emails and texts, we’re looking at content from Season Three a...
Oct 05, 2021•6 min•Ep 141•Transcript available on Metacast 
