Trndsttrs

The entrepreneurship program at my university denied my application. Alongside every accelerator program. My mentor told me I was making a horrible idea. This photo is me 18 months later. Inside of McDonald’s corporate board room. Becoming after our first Fortune 500 client. It isn’t their fault for not believing in you. It isn’t their fault for doubting your mission. It’s your job to prove them wrong. To make the doubters, the believers. To make your competitors, your partners. This is your life — and as far as I’m concerned you’ve only got one. Do it your way

So... what content can you do for brands? Well, we once went skydiving just to get a sick TikTok video. Enjoy one of my favorite videos ever ideated, planned, and produced by everyone's favorite: Aleksei (Aleks) Stojanovic.

If a team member makes a mistake? My fault for not training them properly. If a client expects results on day one? My fault for not setting clear expectations. If the 3PL provider loses inventory? My fault for not auditing them closer. Every problem that comes up in an organization is the fault of leadership. Whether they directly caused the problem or not, the buck stops here. Own it!

Marketing truths we all know, but won't admit: - Most brands have mostly fake followers, especially on Instagram - Brand standards do more harm than good - Consumers don't read Instagram and TikTok captions - What an "impression" is, is totally subjective - Social Media drives sales, even if not tracked - Marketing teams default to what they are best at, regardless of customer data - SEO is still wildly impactful, but boring so we rarely talk about it - Projections are literally impossible - Influencers are the best marketers What'd I miss?

Amazon vs. Temu vs. TikTok Shop A heavy-weight e-commerce battle for the ages. These corporations view it as an all-out war. But frankly it is apples and oranges for consumers. Amazon is intent-first and search-driven. Unless you're a diagnosed shopping-fiend, you'll never find yourself paroozing Amazon. You go there b/c you need something and you need it now. Temu is nothing more than a bargain shopper's dream. If % off and deals get you excited, you're on Temu. If you can consciously say "I don't need this", you'll never make a purchase on Temu. TikTok Shop is interest-first and algorith-driven. It is the discovery, interest of, and exploration of new brands and products. The brands winning on TikTok Shop are rarely found at a gas station or grocery store; they are the unique, challenger brands you've never seen before. It's hardly a war along the lines of the real customer journey. But this perceived war will benefit customers and marketers greatly. Platform discounts, subsidized promotions, expansion, offers... It's a marketer's dream. The real losers here are Google and Meta. Media spend will shift to these acquisition-integrated channels crushing CPAs that Google and Meta can't touch. Why would I spend money on FB ads when I could get influencer promotions at no cost in TikTok? Why would I buy search ads on Google when I can pump Amazon at one-click away from purchase with a higher CVR? Winners: TikTok Shop, Amazon, Temu Losers: Google, Meta

I started posting to LinkedIn in 2016. As a junior high school student who knew nothing. 1,000+ posts later, it’s led to some amazing things. Speaking engagements. Recruiting for most of our employees. Lead gen for about half of our client base. I don’t know where our business would be without it. But these are all just the outcomes. The real reason I share content to LinkedIn has nothing to do with the results. It is for me, and me alone. It allows me to structure my thoughts and ideas. A challenge to translate the insights in my head to text on a screen. It’s closer to a diary than it is anything else. I enjoy it — and would do it regardless of anything that comes from it. If there is a lesson to be learned it is the simplest concept: If you enjoy doing something, you will probably be good at it. If you love running, chances are you’ll run a ton and get in amazing shape. If you only run b/c you want to get in amazing shape… it will suck and you might give up. Fall in love with the process and the input. The results will follow.

I've spoken to 200+ brands over the last year. Usually, on TikTok Shop. I've heard every theory and hypothesis imaginable. But I could fit them all into one of three buckets for why brands are considering TikTok Shop: 1) You Need to Build a New Customer Base Your current customer base is aging out; you see an obvious opportunity to innovate into younger audiences. 2) Diversifying Media Spend Perhaps the most common from D2C brands is an over reliance on current media channels. Whether it be FB, Amazon, or Google - you've got far too great a % of revenue stemming from just one ecosystem. 3) You're Launching New Products or Sub-Brands The most exciting of the bunch is the opportunity to test with new products or sub-brands in an awareness + conversion channel. Before you launch full force you see an opportunity to test in TikTok Shop. -- While TikTok Shop can become your primary revenue channel, its truly best suited as just another sales channel in your arsenal. As you consider here in Q3 what initiatives you'll explore before EOY, I couldn't recommend at least running a pilot in TikTok Shop enough. Simply carve a small percentage of your overall marketing spend and put it to work in a platform with potentially outsized returns. Do not be the person that puts this off to 2025...

The incentive will determine the outcome. A year ago we decided to tailor our business model for TikTok Shop. Moving away from set scopes and retainers to a cost + rev share model. Instead of baking our margin into retainers, we'd eliminate our margin entirely providing services at cost. With all of our profit as a company reliant on client rev share. For the first nine months, it was the dumbest financial decision imaginable. We were bleeding cash. I was having to support cash flow from my personal savings. But if we wanted to become the best TikTok Shop agency, our only chance would be allocating every last dollar toward it. So we followed the plan. Even when our rev shares were kicking, we continued to reinvest these into growth. It was a handful of enterprise clients (retainer only) that kept us afloat. We will close out Q1 and Q2 posting a -$50k+ loss on our TikTok Shop Retainers. But will net our highest profit total and % in company history thanks to our rev share deals. We bet on our great brand partners. We bet on ourselves. And it paid off. Our incentive wasn't to do good for clients for a cool case study. Our incentive was doing great or having our company go under. The plan for our TikTok Shop Division Q3 and Q4 is simple: - Invest 100% of Retainers into Services - Invest 50% of our Rev Shares into growth per client (so if clients nets us a $10k rev share, reinvest $5k back into that client) - Save the other 50% of our Rev Shares to drive EBITDA Put simply: If we do great for our clients, we will make plenty of money. If we do poor for our clients, we won't.

Meet Jake Levy The founder of “Jacob Bar” protein bars. What isn’t close yet, but what will be the best selling protein bar in TikTok shop by the end of the year. And this video summarizes exactly why: 1. Founder-First Content Here’s the brand founder literally in the content. Creating green-screen TikTok native videos; something you’ll never see from larger competitors. 2. Showing Production Do you have any idea what ingredients go into most protein bars? What those ingredients look like? Their facility? Jake shows it all here. 3. Transparency Throughout the video Jake shares all of the common production problems that take place. “This can go wrong and mess up the packaging!” When have you ever seen a brand highlight their production flaws? Assuming he can get the financing and production scaled, it’s just a matter of time before you see Jacob Bar at the top!

I value education more than anything else. But I dropped out of school before I got my marketing degree. So I built the best marketing education content in the world. "The CMO Podcast Series" I interviewed 100 marketing executives over the course of two years: The CMO of North Face. The CMO of Coca Cola. The CMO of Nissan. The CMO of ADT. The Head of Marketing at 3M. VP of Marketing at NASA. The CMO of Century Link. The Head of Marketing at One Brands. The CMO of FIS Global. The CEO of Red Robin. The VP of Marketing at Facebook. The Head of Strategy at Riot Games. I'd take the information in those interviews over any marketing program in the world. Education is everywhere and infinite in supply. It's your job to find it.