D2C Diaries

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Carl Weische, founder of Accelerated Agency, runs CRO for AG1, Huel, Vessi, The Oodie, Bioniq and IM8. He breaks down why postclick and "the fragmentation of the funnel" are becoming the next big lever as media buying gets more automated and more expensive, why one product page can't sell to every customer avatar, and how he reframes offers around perceived value instead of discounting. He also tells the inside story of building IM8 from zero to over $50m a month using a network of 50 congruent, persona-driven funnels, each built around a specific ad angle.

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:58 From Reselling Yeezys to founding Accelerated
05:09 Media buying isn't enough anymore
08:58 Postclick mistakes brands make
15:27 Perceived value over discounting
21:57 The IM8 story: $0 to $50m/month
30:44 When to build a dedicated funnel
33:42 The post-purchase upsell playbook
38:58 The research most brands skip
42:14 Where AI helps (and where it can't)
45:02 In-house software and Claude Code
48:09 The next competitive edge?...

This podcast is proudly sponsored by Incard.

If you're spending serious money on daily business expenses and getting nothing back on it right now, this dedicated offer gets you 2% Cashback for year 1 on Ads, SaaS, Travel and other everyday business expenses. Uncapped.

Sign up for free and use the code SWU2K26 to unlock your cashback: https://www.incard.com/?fpr=soarwithus&fp_sid=pod

Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson
Follow Joe: https://linktr.ee/joe_marston
Follow Loukas: https://shorturl.at/TRI8B / https://x.com/LoukasHambi
Follow Carl: https://www.youtube.com/@UCIgbiNZFqHZqIQ2Uoxxfu6w https://x.com/CarlWeische

🚨🚀 If you're a brand spending £100K/month, we'll run your ads. Apply for your growth roadmap: https://www.soarwithus.co/d2c-diaries-get-in-touch?utm_campaign=191661253-D2C%20Diaries&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=podcast&utm_term=d2c_diaries&utm_content=ep_83

Matt, Director of Brand & Product at Lapland UK, took a 20-year live-only Christmas experience business and turned it into a DTC brand that sold 15,000 advent calendars in under 4 hours. He breaks down why Lapland builds every product from the story first, and how they cracked the US market from zero brand awareness, landing a $250 average order value from a completely cold audience.

This podcast is proudly sponsored by SATHI

SATHI is the affiliate platform built for Shopify brands that want the truth about their program. Cookieless multi-touch attribution shows you which affiliates drove the sale. AI-powered fraud engine catches leaked codes and self-referrals before your payout goes out. Ambassadors climb commission tiers, earn booster rewards, and see exactly what they need to unlock next. Payouts, invoices, and tax forms happen in one click.

D2C Diaries listeners get 20% off, free migration from their current setup, and onboarding support from their team.

Book a demo: https://www.mysathi.io/demo?utm_source=soarwithus&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=d2c_diaries

Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson
Follow Joe:https://linktr.ee/joe_marston
Follow Loukas: https://shorturl.at/TRI8B / https://x.com/LoukasHambi

Follow Matt: https://www.instagram.com/mattbatts/

Paul Gedman has been in DTC longer than almost anyone we've had on the podcast - from joining The Hut Group in 2009 with 40 employees, and over nine years scaling it to £1 billion in revenue via ten acquisitions (including Look Fantastic), to now running eComplete, where he's building a model that competes directly with private equity for e-commerce acquisitions.

Paul breaks down why every DTC era is defined by a different arbitrage opportunity, what actually happens once a founder takes on investment (his "5-a-side to 11-a-side" analogy is a good one), and the brutal real odds of a successful DTC exit - he puts it at 1 in 1,600 founders who get out with more than 50% of the value. 

We also get into why 80% of exit processes fail, the prep work founders skip that kills deals months later, and how eComplete is trying to build a hybrid model that gives founders a better shot.

🚨🚀 If you're a brand spending £100K/month, we'll run your ads. Apply for your growth roadmap: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0wQ_DM0

This podcast is proudly sponsored by Sathi. 

SATHI is the affiliate platform built for Shopify brands that want the truth about their program. Cookieless multi-touch attribution shows you which affiliates drove the sale. AI-powered fraud engine catches leaked codes and self-referrals before your payout goes out. Ambassadors climb commission tiers, earn booster rewards, and see exactly what they need to unlock next. Payouts, invoices, and tax forms happen in one click.

D2C Diaries listeners get 20% off, free migration from their current setup, and onboarding support from their team.

Book a demo: https://mysathi.io/demo?utm_source=soarwithus&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=d2c_diaries

Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson

Follow Paul: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-gedman-626b0666/ 

Follow D2C Diaries https://www.tiktok.com/@d2c_diaries / 

https://www.instagram.com/d2c_diaries/

This podcast is proudly sponsored by Incard.

If you're spending serious money on daily business expenses and getting nothing back on it right now, this dedicated offer gets you 2% Cashback for year 1 on Ads, SaaS, Travel and other everyday business expenses. Uncapped.

Sign up for free and use the code SWU2K26 to unlock your cashback https://incard.co?fpr=soarwithus&fp_sid=pod

Meta performance has been rough since March and if you're feeling it, you're not alone. Olly and Loukas are back for a solo episode breaking down exactly what's gone wrong on the platform and, more importantly, what's actually working across the 40+ audits they ran in Q2.

They cover the five most common account errors they're seeing right now (most of which are quick fixes), why creative diversity has become the single biggest unlock for scaling spend, and how to run a proper gap analysis across persona, messaging, valence zones, emotional drivers, and vehicle type before you produce another asset.

Krishna Rao, CFO of Anthropic, on Invest Like the Best https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEEZPpx8qow

Brian Chesky on Invest Like the Best - AI Founder mode https://youtu.be/eURcW5_uS60

Creative Forecasting resource: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0wjPt20

00:00 Intro: news and what we've been watching

17:32 State of Meta: why Q2 has been tough across the board

20:18 5 common account errors (attribution, audiences, funnel coverage, concentration, landing pages)

28:09 What's working: The Hudson Method and creator flywheels

36:36 Creative volume, gap analysis and diversifying across personas, valence & vehicle

48:42 Hit rate case study: micro personas and psychological messaging in action

50:58 Iterations, borrowing frameworks from non-competing brands

55:24 Landing pages, quiz funnels and AOV engineering

🚨🚀 If you're a brand spending £100K/month, we'll run your ads. Apply for your growth roadmap:  https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0wjzrY0 

Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson

Follow Joe: https://linktr.ee/joe_marston

Follow Loukas: https://shorturl.at/TRI8B / https://x.com/LoukasHambi

Follow Liam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-dean-a11a43152/

Follow D2C Diaries: https://www.tiktok.com/@d2c.diaries / https://www.instagram.com/d2c_diaries/

This podcast is proudly sponsored by Incard.

If you're spending serious money on daily business expenses and getting nothing back on it right now, this dedicated offer gets you 2% Cashback for year 1 on Ads, SaaS, Travel and other everyday business expenses. Uncapped.

Sign up for free and use the code SWU2K26 to unlock your cashback https://incard.co?fpr=soarwithus&fp_sid=pod 

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12 months ago AI animation wasn't really a thing. Now it's a fourth creative format sitting alongside static, UGC and high production and the brands that figure it out first are going to have a significant edge.

We got Alex Cooper back on D2C Diaries this week. And a lot has changed since he was last on. We got into everything. 

How we've built an AI videographer role into our production process and why you need a specialist not a generalist. 
Why winning ads right now are either hyper native or elite direct response and why everything in the middle is dying. 
How the pendulum has swung too far toward AI research and why the best strategists are going back to manual. 
Why iterations aren't dead post-Andromeda, they just need to mean something. 
And the brand that scaled from $1M to $45M off the back of one concept.

Check out Parker AI here: https://heyparker.ai/

🚨🚀 If you're a brand spending £100K/month, we'll run your ads. Apply for your growth roadmap:  https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0wjzrY0 

Follow Alex 
https://x.com/alexgoughcooper
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexgoughcooper/
https://heyparker.ai/

00:00 Alex Cooper returns 
02:24 Our sponsor Incard
04:01 The biggest shifts in creative strategy in the last 12 months
05:54 How we built the AI videographer role 
13:25 AI animations are here to stay
16:02 Meta's persona level delivery
20:04 Gap analysis, learnings and data
26:55 Manual research vs AI automated research
30:07 Our sponsor Incard
31:45 Manual research vs AI automated research
33:39 Iterations post-Andromeda
38:26 Ugly vs high prod
48:37 Positive framing
51:22 Complexity bias in ads
55:20 How Alex is using AI
1:02:17 Parker AI

Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson
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