1. The most important thing: NEVER gatekeep. Whenever you think: “oh no, I shouldn’t share my exact process, people will steal it”, that’s exactly when you should share it. The best tools and workflows are the ones that will go viral, because they’re the smartest.

2. Metrics to care about (in this order): saves, replies, likes, reposts. If you make sure your content is save-worthy, you’ll be fine.

3. This might be controversial, but become really good at writing hooks. The spicier the hook, the better. My 2nd-most-viral post (351.4k views) said: “It’s time to cancel your Opus Clip subscription”, because I had made an open-source clipping tool to replace it. Another one said (157.1k views): “In 6 months only insane people are going to edit videos manually”. Top tip: save hooks that work well in your niche, in X folders.

4. Build stuff with AI, even if you’re not “technical”. X really values builders, tools, and products. So, if you’ve been hesitant to share stuff or build with AI, just do it and you’ll find an audience. You’re still very early.

5. Value > your random thoughts. Please refrain from just posting your opinions into the abyss. Without gaining a following for things you build first, you’ll get zero engagement. Create value for free by sharing apps, code, designs, and links.

6. Share hot takes. If you’ve consistently been sharing value for free and gained followers doing so, then also sprinkle in some of your hot takes/opinions. Make sure they’re a little controversial.

7. Beware, going viral ≠ new followers. Sharing hot takes might get you exposure/picked up on news somewhere, but it won’t build consistent followers the way sharing value for free will. This post got me 780k views, but < 50 followers.

8. Comment on trends, thoughtfully. No need to be the fastest one to comment on a recent trend or happening, but have the most thoughtful take. Those are rare to come by on X. I wrote an article about Taste Labs, with my reasoning, instead of just hating.

9. How to never run out of ideas to post:

   1. Share what you build as open-source projects or learnings.

   2. Stats, failures, observations work well. Like my friends Kourosh and Elston do.

   3. If you succeed at something (e.g. “I went viral on YouTube”) share exact steps on how you did it (I promise, I shared it in this video).

10. Keep posting, daily. Even if you don’t have anything deep to talk about, try to keep posting. The algo really rewards posting consistently.

11. Quote-tweet viral tweets. It works to piggy-back off a trending tweet, by “quoting” an already-viral tweet about the same topic. In this one, I basically gave proof of what this tweet was saying. I find this works best with tweets that are viral in a niche, so not all over the timeline.

If you liked this guide, please share it with a friend or consider subscribing for more. Of course, feel free to DM me on X.

Subscribe now

I don’t know which marketer needs to hear this, but you need your own GitHub.

In one year from now, you’ll only be hireable if you’ve shared what you’ve built:

• Skills and agents

• Prompts

• Dashboards and analytics setups

• Content systems (scripts, repurposing pipelines)

• Experiments and teardowns (what worked, what flopped)

• Personal projects and apps

This is what I posted on LinkedIn the other day. My post drove 1,200 new followers in a single day, despite only taking me two minutes to write.

Hundreds of people agreed. Many of them were hiring marketers and confirmed they prioritized candidates who build with AI.

Others protested with comments like “stop forcing marketers to become engineers”. They argued that being hireable depended on things like networking and creativity, instead.

Owning a GitHub and being creative or good at networking aren’t mutually exclusive. Quite the opposite.

You should have a GitHub as a marketer because it lets you show product thinking: knowing which problems your customers have and solving them with new features, skills, or apps. It can even be a way to ‘crowdsource’ interest in new features before including them in a product.

Don’t worry: setting it up isn’t as complicated as it sounds.

Subscribe to Growth Unhinged

Practical guide: How to set up and brand your GitHub profile as a marketer

Here’s how to set up and brand your own GitHub from scratch:

Set up + brand your GitHub as a marketer — Tella

Learn how to personalize your GitHub profile to make it more engaging and professional. This guide covers adding custom banners, pinning repositories, and using README files to showcase your work effectively.

1. Create an account on GitHub.com

If applicable, ask to be added to your team by an admin.

2. (Optional) If you’d like to let Claude publish to GitHub directly, install the GitHub CLI. Note: On a Mac, Homebrew is the easiest way to install it. Ask Claude/Codex for installation instructions for your device.

Why GitHub CLI? It lets you tell Claude things like “create a public repo named after my GitHub username with a profile README” and it’ll actually run the commands, rather than clicking around the GitHub website.

3. Create a new public repository named exactly after your username (like this one). Select “Add a README.md” when you do, or ask Claude to do this for you.

This generates a README.md (i.e. markdown file) that you can fill in as an “About” section that’ll show up on your profile automatically.

4. Update the README.md for this repository with information about yourself. You can do this manually via the “✏️” icon or edit through Claude.

Keep the description short and tangible. No LinkedIn-esque bullshit. Here’s mine as an example:

“Growth marketer at Tella — the all-in-one screen recorder. I make AI for non-engineer tutorials on YouTube, you’ll love this one. I’ve shared plenty of AI for video editing skills. Working on personal projects to help with personal finance, better habits & outfit stress. Sometimes, I write on Substack.”

My thinking is that, for marketers, GitHub acts as a personal landing page replacing a portfolio. So, link to meaningful work or places (e.g. YouTube, X, TikTok) for people to see more from you. Your description should include: where you work, where you post, and what you’re into.

5. Customize your profile homepage.

Connect your socials by adding links (in left side-bar), update the short bio, and add your profile picture.

Optional: Set a fun status. Mine says “gone surfing”.

6. If you have any, pin your repositories (i.e. code) to your profile

I pinned the ones that got the most stars. This skill that turns long-form videos into short-form social clips got 450+ stars.

7. When you publish a new repo (e.g. a Claude skill, app, markdown file), give Claude a certain format to follow.

I always include a cover photo, a description of the code/project, and what problem I’m solving. Your code will mostly be used by non-technical people, so make sure they understand how to navigate your repo best.

Tell Claude to include installation instructions for non-technical people. I like to include explainer videos, gifs, or workflow diagrams. You can simply tell Claude or Codex to generate diagrams or motion graphics like these:

8. Distribute your repos and get GitHub stars.

I went viral on X with a few of the skills listed on my GitHub. This meant that people starred the repository or “forked” my code (i.e. made their own copy to build on). The more helpful code and projects you share, the more people will follow you to stay up to date.

How this comes together: Your GitHub homepage quick guide

Beware that some people will hate you for doing this.

For engineers, looking like you don’t care is cool. So, investing in a README.md is seen as kind of lame.

I agree, to an extent, that your projects should speak for themselves. Once you’ve spent some time on a short “About” section just get back to shipping useful tools :)

FAQs about GitHub for marketers

Hundreds of people have asked me questions about this. Here are the three that came up most often.

Q: What if most of my contributions are in private repos?

Many of you might be shipping code directly to production in private repos. In which case, this activity can be tracked on your contribution monitor, but the code will remain private.

Regardless of whether or not you share code on GitHub, my suggestion is to build tools of your own. Things you think the world needs. This could be apps you use to organize your closet, help you work out, or automate your family life.

Share the code open source (for free), if you’re feeling generous. This is what will happen:

Share code → People use the app/code/skill → They love you → You build audience (on socials/GitHub) → You become more hireable.

Q: Does this replace my portfolio?

I prefer GitHub to a website portfolio because projects are updated in real-time whenever you ship anything new (i.e. commit new code). This lets you get rid of the additional step of updating a website, for example.

Q: Why are you turning marketers into engineers?

Not engineers, but builders. “Builders” are people who combine product management, coding, design, and marketing.

I don’t make the rules, it’s hiring teams at the coolest startups that are changing what they look for in marketers. But one principle remains: marketers should create value for free, and shipping code written with AI is just another way to do this.

Don’t panic, start small.

In my case, if I see a UI improvement in Tella that I can easily fix, I do it without bothering our devs (mostly). If I built a Claude skill that helps me edit videos faster, I share it on GitHub for free.

Then, I gave Remotion a try in Claude Code and here are some of the outputs:

I made a video tutorial using Claude Code + Remotion. The video now has 15k views (and ~400 likes) on YouTube.

With this workflow, I recreate almost any motion graphic I find on Pinterest or YouTube in a couple of prompts. Personalised to my content or design system.

Here’s how it works.

What you’ll need

• Claude Code installed on your machine

• Remotion — a React-based framework for programmatic video

• A folder somewhere on your computer for saving inspiration (mine is called Animation Examples)

Step 1: Install Remotion

Head to the Remotion docs and copy the install command at the top of the page. Paste it into your terminal and walk through the prompts:

• Choose Blank as your starter template (use arrow keys to navigate)

• Say yes to Tailwind CSS — it’s what Remotion uses for styling

• Say yes to adding Remotion as a Claude agent skill

• Pick the recommended agents

• Accept the defaults for installation scope and symlinks

• Confirm yes when it asks to install defined skills

When it’s done, you’ll have a new project folder in your home directory (mine is called my-video). cd into it, then in a new terminal tab run:

claude

Trust the folder, then run:

npm run dev

That opens Remotion in your browser. This is where every motion graphic you generate will show up as a new “composition” in the left sidebar — ready to preview, tweak, and render.

Step 2: Find inspiration

This is the fun part. Some places I pull from:

Pinterest. Most of what’s there is static, but that’s fine — Claude can animate a still image. Search for things like “infographic,” “data visualization,” or “title card design,” save what you like to your inspiration folder, and you’ve got a library to work from.

YouTube videos. When you spot a motion graphic you love in someone else’s video (Ali Abdaal’s are great), record that snippet using Tella, QuickTime, or CleanShot. Save it to your inspiration folder.

A note before you start: keep it simple at first. Bar charts, Venn diagrams, animated text, growth graphs — those work beautifully. Things with lots of arrows or complex hand-drawn elements are harder.

Step 3: Generate the animation

For static images, drag and drop the image into Claude in the terminal and ask it to recreate the design as a new Remotion composition. Something like:

Use this image as inspiration to create a new composition.

Claude will write the code, and the animation will appear in your Remotion browser tab within seconds. From there, iterate in plain English:

Make this an upward graph showing newsletter subscriber growth to 12,500 subscribers.

Change the bar labels to Q1 through Q4 and the title to “Marketing Performance 2025.”

Make the Venn diagram horizontal and make sure the center text doesn’t flow into the yellow intersections.

A tip I’ve learned the hard way: give Claude the image first with minimal instructions, then iterate. The more you front-load, the more room for misinterpretation. Let it take a first pass, then refine.

You can also feed it your own data — drop in a CSV or Excel file and your bar chart animation can use real numbers from your spreadsheet.

Step 4: Animate from a video clip

Claude Code can’t ingest video directly, so we use FFmpeg to extract frames. Just point Claude at your saved video and prompt:

Use FFmpeg to analyze the video in my Animation Inspiration folder and create a similar animation where words come in one by one.

It’ll grant itself the folder access it needs, pull frame data, describe the design back to you, and build a matching composition. In my testing, it nailed the colors, the typography, and the entrance animations — only missing some background details that I added with one more prompt.

Step 5: Render and use in your video

When you’re happy with a composition, hit render in Remotion. I go with ProRes at the highest quality and save as .mov.

To use it in Tella: open your video, click Add clip → Use web app → Upload, and drag the file in. These work especially well as title cards or chapter dividers between sections of your video. Same workflow applies for any other video editor.

The takeaway

You don’t need to learn After Effects or hire a motion designer to add personality to your videos. With Claude Code and Remotion, the bottleneck shifts from technical skill to taste — your job is just to know what looks good and describe it.

Start an inspiration folder this week. Next time you sit down to make a video, you’ll have a pile of references ready to animate in seconds.

If you want more tips like this for making your videos stand out, subscribe to the Tella YouTube channel — we’re sharing more workflows soon.

But in its simplest form, it’s a web extension wishlist tool.

One that’s profitable and generates $1.2M ARR with minimal funding needs. The kind of traction most consumer founders today can only dream of.

So, I decided to ask Locker’s founder, Kristine, how she built a tool that stuck.

This is the first of hopefully many founder interviews of apps I love. I’ll focus specifically on consumer apps, because growing those is extremely hard and impressive. Know someone I should talk to? Drop me a message here or on LinkedIn.

The interview

A fellow founder might envy Locker’s early TikTok success, which contributed to its massive user growth. Today, Locker has 200k users and works with big retailers like Nike and Free People.

In today’s interview, we reflect on the hard work and decisions, beyond going viral, that went into growing Locker.

Louise: You’ve described Locker as “Pinterest for online shopping”. What problem were you trying to solve when you started Locker? Has it evolved?

Kristine: When I first set out to build the platform, I was building it from the perspective of a consumer myself. I used to take screenshots of everything I saw on my phone. Whether it was on social media or a friend would text me a link to an item, I would take a screenshot.

I'm a very organised person. On my computer, I would keep a Google spreadsheet full of links, marking who they were for and where I found them. That's where the light bulb turned on for me. I was already a big Pinterest user, but I wanted to create something that had a similar feeling, but was more shoppable*. A virtual wishlist to see these items I was saving and share them with others. That’s the first version of Locker that I sketched out on a piece of paper. It hasn't changed a ton, just matured.

*Easier to draw inspiration from others, save specific items, see when they go on sale, buy from links, etc.

L: Since founding Locker in 2020, you’ve achieved an impressive 200k users and $1.2M ARR. What is the ‘unfair insight’ you had about shopping/consumption that no one else seemed to have at the time?

K: I love this question. I think a lot of the shopping space at that time was approached by men. So, you had people building products without really understanding the underlying pain points people experienced while browsing, shopping, and styling.

From the start, the genesis of Locker was to turn shopping and browsing into a more communal experience, shared with friends. That’s still true today.

“We see shopping as having different moments of delight, between seeing an item and then saving it. So, we try to accommodate those moments.”

L: Tell us about the switch from working in real estate at Goldman Sachs to building a company in the consumer space. What did you expect from becoming a founder vs. how it panned out?

K: From growing our team to fundraising, none of what I expected came true. Before you build a startup or product, there’s this idea that you work hard for a few years, but will inevitably reach ‘hockey stick’ growth after a while.

I realised things didn’t go as fast as I expected them to. Even when it came to our team, 9 people today, we grew slowly but surely. The same was true for fundraising, which I always thought would be easier than it is.

I think you never expect it to be as hard before starting. You wouldn’t even try if you knew what it took. So, in a way, the naiveté was a blessing.

Problem space

L: This year, you had 830k products saved using Lockers— that’s massive! You mentioned, “the modern consumer finds pleasure in browsing”. Tell us more about this.

K: We actually had 10M products saved to date on Locker, that 830k was a record month around the holidays— crazy!

We see shopping as having different moments of delight, between seeing an item and then saving it. So, we try to accommodate those moments.

We’ve noticed that there are different types of users. So, someone who has just moved into a new place or bought a house might use Locker to build a specific collection for home decor.

L: I just moved into a new place. That’s me.

K: There you go! Once that life phase is done, you might create another collection for an upcoming holiday. So, these are shoppers who act more so for specific occasions.

L: Sounds a lot like Pinterest, meaning creating boards per life phase or occasion is an acquired habit.

K: Exactly. Other shoppers might be more price-sensitive. I know I am a pretty price-sensitive, conscious shopper. But sometimes, I know I need to buy something. So, I save everything to my Locker and then wait for a price drop or notification. If anything, it just helps me be methodical about my purchases.

There are so many different kinds of shoppers, and Locker is trying to build for all of them.

L: What is something about your users’ behaviour you wish you’d found out about sooner?

K: We know the consumer mindset pretty well and build the product around the consumer mindset. One thing that's been surprising, although it probably shouldn't have been, is that consumers are more cost-thoughtful than I thought. They wait for something to go on sale, which is exactly the kind of consumer I am, too.

Over the past five years, we’ve also seen consumers evolve regarding sustainability and the brands they support. Consumers want to identify with the brands that they're shopping for. You see much of TikTok being anti-Shein, anti-Zara, or anti-fast fashion in general. That’s been a big learning into how we support consumers.

“With our data, retailers also know which five other dresses visitors saved from other websites like Moda Operandi or SSENSE. That data is really interesting for retailers.”

L: What do you say to retailers afraid to lose control over their user wishlists and activation?

With Locker, retailers don’t necessarily lose too much data about their visitors. They can still see which item page they visited, how long they stayed on the page, which other products they looked at, etc. The only data they may miss is the exact item they’ve saved.

Locker gives brands a much more holistic view of their consumer. Say, you’re Net-a-Porter. Previously, you’d only know which item a visitor was saving from your website. With our data, retailers also know which five other dresses visitors saved from other websites like Moda Operandi or SSENSE. That data is really interesting for retailers.

The data might prompt them to drop their price or push a certain product type.

L: Was it the intention from the start to monetise this kind of data?

K: Yes, but we couldn’t offer this data at the time. So, we first partnered with brands that did brand placements on the platform for a flat fee. Every month, we would give them the data on how their sponsored collections and content had performed, with a roundup of how users engaged and converted.

Now, with millions of products saved and 200k+ users, we can finally consider charging retailers for access to our data.

L: What do you say to people who say that Locker was made for people to consume more?

K: Our intention is actually to create more mindful consumers. Of course, I understand the criticism; we feature brands and help people shop. But, even just looking at myself, I’ve become a more conscious consumer.

For an upcoming wedding, I knew I needed at least one dress. So, I looked for dresses and saved about 15 to my Locker. Eventually, that helped me choose wisely and pick one. Previously, I might have impulsively ordered several and returned most of them. Which, even environmentally, is not ideal.

L: Part of the genesis for Locker is communal shopping, making it a shared activity. Much of online shopping today involves gate-keeping. The idea that sees influencers or creators not sharing what they’re wearing. What are your thoughts on this?

K: We’re not seeing too many people hide their collections on Locker. Unless it’s for a wedding or something, which people might not want everyone to see, understandably!

We recently launched a payback model, which should reduce gate-keeping even more. Whenever someone buys something because they saw it on someone’s collection, they earn a commission.

L: Like an affiliate?

Exactly. I checked my commissions this morning and saw people had been inspired to buy a few things from my collection, which I hadn’t even shared on social. It’s reassuring to see I don’t need to be a full-blown influencer to make a little money off referring the things I like and own, haha!

L: It’s cool to make ‘influencing’ this authentic and close, rewarding people with a little cash. You might have seen that fashion creators on Substack received backlash for sharing recommendations with affiliate links, but then paywalling those same newsletters! Locker seems like a nice way to earn without needing a large following or having a newsletter.

K: Yes, exactly.

L: Do you ever do quality control when sourcing cool fashion creators? Or is it quite open?

K: We don’t have a methodical approach to this. We realised that fashion and style (and, thus, Locker collections) are almost a form of free speech.

At some point, we did have to draw a line somewhere. We found a user who’d been saving only adult dolls. Pretty remarkable. It wasn’t a problem, but we decided to set those types of collections to ‘private-only’. That’s the extent of our curation, our community generates the rest.

L: Tell us a bit more about your business model.

K: We earn a commission whenever someone buys an item saved from a partner brand. Then, we have the brand placements I mentioned. So, we might do curated collections with Nike or Free People that we feature for our users to see. Note: the brands don’t get to say which products should go into a collection; our team chooses which items we think would work best. I think that’s what’s most authentic.

“There was a time when a single TikTok could generate 500 new users. Those times are over.”

Growth

L: I'd love to talk more about your approach to growth, starting with a fun question. Fuck, marry, kill: user acquisition, activation, or retention?

K: I'm gonna marry retention because you need retention forever. I would kill acquisition because if you have enough active users, you can make enough money off of them. Maybe they become your acquisition channel, and you don't have to do the acquisition yourself. And I guess I’d fuck activation because you need the users that you bring in the door to be active on the platform.

L: I would’ve picked the same ones. Are you still leading growth today?

K: Not as much as I did at the start. As CEO, I guess you’re pulled in so many directions, but my time now mainly focuses on two things.

On the one end, I spend a lot of time thinking about the product. Where our users are and what else they might need in their buying journey. Features we’ve recently worked on are the cashback on purchases (in the US), commissions when anyone is inspired by someone else, and soon we’ll be launching price drops.

The second thing I am working on is driving revenue through partnerships with retailers.

I do think growth is such a cool role because it touches on product, creativity, and data. I’ve spent a lot of time leading it, but with 200k users, the role has outgrown me. So, we’re hiring for a Head of Growth now.

L: I would have applied for this role! I know you’ve gone viral a few times on TikTok. Is it still a main growth channel for you?

K: It’s still huge for us. However, it has changed in the past 3-6 months. There was a time when a single TikTok could generate 500 new users. Those times are over, but we’re still figuring out what the algorithm wants.

L: What do founders get right or wrong about marketing on TikTok?

K: I find this a hard one to answer, because one could argue we’re still figuring things out. We’re always trying to figure out what the algorithm wants. What’s worked for us, though, is sharing behind the scenes. People love seeing what we’re building and how, because it feels authentic.

Now, we work with two pillars— entertainment and education. We’ll hop on fun sounds or trends. But just the other day, we did a series of videos showing what each of our team members gets up to every day.

L: It looks like you did grow organically at a lucky time, then? You got a ton of traction through a platform like TikTok to accumulate users and data. You now use this to win retail partnerships and drive revenue, which you can reinvest in growth.

K: Yes! I started Locker without raising capital, just using my savings. That’s also how I paid our first engineers. We’ve raised $3M since, but became profitable in December of 2023. So there’s loads of money in the bank. I like the idea of not having to raise too much and staying in control of the product.

“Our generation is very much the ‘efficiency generation’. So, why would I leave you to guess what I want? I'm just going to tell you what I want.”

The product

K: Is there a feature you did not expect would do as well as it did?

L: We created this feature called ‘giftable collections’ as a way for people to make wish lists and share them with others. I'm a picky person, meaning I am a big fan of not getting the same gift twice, haha.

We launched giftable collections during the holidays. They had incredible adoption, but we also see continued use of them throughout the year. For people’s birthdays, and some people even use them for baby registries now.

L: I’ve noticed an evolution regarding wish lists. The older members of my family are so against lists. Their reaction to lists is usually “absolutely not”. But amongst my siblings, we’re like, send me your list, because I don't want to get you something you don't want.

K: I think this evolution has to do with the boom of online shopping and the amount of choice nowadays. Just thinking about my parents. When they were younger, there were maybe a handful of retail stores. There weren’t as many direct-to-consumer or retail stores to choose from.

I also think personal style wasn't as evolved as it is today. If you look at pictures of people in the 50s and 60s, they were all wearing very similar things. Today, people's tastes and styles have evolved so much that it's harder to pick for them.

People are also more particular about this brand versus that brand. Our generation is very much the ‘efficiency generation’. Why would I leave you to guess what I want? I'm just going to tell you what I want.

L: Even just between Gen Z and Millennials (I was born right on the cusp), I can tell there’s been a shift to being more pragmatic among Gen Z. We think: why are we making our lives hard?

K: So true!

L: Tell me about a pinch-me moment. A campaign that went viral, a milestone, etc. Tell us why it was so meaningful to you.

K: There have been so many. I think that the moment we hit 30k users was pretty surreal. But then, it was just ‘on to the next’. Now, I can’t quite believe we’re at 200k users. Even raising money was always a pinch-me moment. But really, I get pinch-me moments whenever anyone makes a video about us or says how much they love using Locker, it’s so cool to see.

Inspiration & Style

L: Who is a founder you learned from?

K: Melanie Perkins, the founder of Canva, is my favourite founder of all time. We have somewhat of a similar story in terms of fundraising. Hundreds and hundreds of people told her no. They thought it was a stupid idea. They said, nobody's would ever use a product like Canva.

And now, I look at Canva, and they're worth billions of dollars. They're an integral part of so many people's lives. I use Canva every single day, so does our team. She’s an example of needing to be resilient as a founder because people are going to tell you no. She had a vision in mind and knew the product would be used. Now, it’s a household name.

L: We’ve seen a growing ‘no buy’ movement on TikTok. Now, branded ‘recession prepping’. I saw Locker mention how it helped with more intentional spending. Tell us about the role of having a brand worldview.

K: We try to stay away from making any statements on anything political, economic, or even the environment. What we do, instead, even when we see a trend like ‘recession prepping’ on TikTok, is ask: “how does Locker fit into this?”.

We know that consumers will become more conscious, so we just try to see how we can help consumers with this. The same is true for the environment and how we can help users become more mindful.

L: Tell us about how you shop or any other ways you engage with spending and your style?

K: I have a pretty basic style, so I love neutrals. I don’t think I am really the person coming up with the style. But I do love investing in really quality pieces that’ll last me a long time.

The way I shop is I’ll be on socials or Locker and see something I like. I’ll save a few things to my Locker and decide: “how would I style this?”. It’s been nice to see my style come together like that.

L: I wanted to end on a funny Locker story of mine.

K: Do it.

L: Last year, my boyfriend went to one of my favourite stores to find me a birthday gift. It was a really ‘cool girl’-kind of store. Beautiful brands, but kind of intimidating. He needed help, so he showed the shop owner my Locker wishlists for inspiration.

He pulls it up, and it shows a bunch of engagement ring inspiration that I’d just saved. Maybe over 25 rings (!) She burst out in laughter and told him: “I hope you got the hint”. I could’ve died.

Oh my gosh! These are all of the Locker boyfriends and husbands. They’ve been trained.

L: I think we might need a dedicated label, “boyfriends of Locker”

Check out Locker, it’s free and it’ll seriously up your wishlist game. Thanks Kristine for your time. Please be sure to give her a follow on LinkedIn or TikTok.

1 — An element of surprise

Why do we love watching Duolingo’s owl in an imaginary relationship with Dua Lipa? It’s for the same reason we like to see Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg star in a BIC commercial.

The pairs don’t really make sense.

They challenge our perception of normal.

Your partnership with a celeb/influencer/creator should be surprising. Herein lies both the secret and the difficulty of a great collaboration. Pick someone too random and leave your audience confused. Pick someone too obvious and you’re predictable.

Take this Super Bowl ad by Duracell featuring NFL-player Tom Brady.

Of course they picked Tom Brady for a Super Bowl commercial. It’s like getting a chef to feature in your olive oil commercial. I prefer what Graza did by customising an olive oil bottle for singer Dua Lipa.

2 — Tie into a cultural moment

On top of being unexpected, the person you collab with should tie into a cultural moment. Only collaborating with someone because they’re unexpected can leave your audience feeling confused.

Take this ad by Uber Eats.

The bit here is that football was invented to get people to eat. Why is Matthew McConaughey telling us this? It’s a fine ad because he’s a fine actor. But it doesn’t make you go “oh, choosing him for this was clever”.

Now, let’s look at a campaign that both features someone unexpected and a link to a cultural moment. Last week, women’s clothing brand Reformation collaborated (for what looks like a menswear launch) with comedian Pete Davidson.

That could’ve been the campaign:

But Reformation didn’t stop there. The campaign happened right before Valentine’s Day. In an ad, Pete goes to Reformation stores once a week to act like the “perfect boyfriend”. This is a reference to Davidson’s rich dating history.

His dating history has become a cultural moment that has stood the test of time. This article from 2022 describes Pete as “the ultimate rebound boyfriend”.

This matters because good campaigns take time to produce, so avoid cultural moments that will be forgotten by next week. Remember the brands that jumped on ‘Brat Summer’ last year? I don’t either.

💡 Ask yourself

1. Looking back on the past year, which cultural moment got people talking? Source these from sports, movies, viral TikTok vids, music, celebrities, gossip.

2. Which ones will we remember years from now?

3. Or, is there anything my audience is nostalgic about? For Millennials, reference things like flip phones, iconic movies (e.g. Clueless), or early Internet culture.

3 — Cultural moment → then, campaign idea

Typically, we come up with campaign ideas first and then find a suitable creator/influencer to collaborate with. I say we flip this around.

Find a cultural moment, then come up with a campaign.

The best collaborations happen when there’s only one right person for the job. Pete is the only right person for Reformation’s “perfect boyfriend” campaign, because of his widely-discussed dating history.

Same for BIC’s campaign with Snoop and Martha. Snoop is the ultimate pothead and Martha the ultimate homemaker. They both use BIC lighters in a unique way, which is what the campaign was built around angle.

💡 Ask yourself

1. What makes this person the only right person for this campaign? Your collaboration should be defensible.

2. How can I tie myself to this cultural moment? Save any funny, niche, or inspiring cultural moment you come across. Don’t mind if it’s niche.

4 — Small and niche is ok

For small brands or startups, collaborations can feel discouraging. Creators/celebs with big audiences are expensive. The good news? Bigger audiences are not always better.

What matters is what their audience is made up of.

Chances are that your ‘dream’ influencers are following niche, small creators.

Asics does a great job of collaborating on limited edition sneakers with niche influencers and brands. I mentioned their collab with Juliana Salazar (62k followers) last week. Juliana is a creative director and reference for other ‘cool’ people.

→ Rather than focusing on audience size, focus on the audience’s potential to influence new buyers.

Asics also collaborated small café called TOKI in Amsterdam once. Their customers? Hipsters, early adopters, and trend setters. Their audience are the influencers, not the end-consumers. This is long-term thinking 😄

💡 Ask yourself

→ Does this person’s audience contain other influencers/trendsetters? Choose ‘influence’ over ‘audience size’ as a metric. If your influencer’s audience contains early adopters, chances are they’ll influence new people and so on.

TLDR;

Ditch the myths that the influencer you collab with need to:

• be hyper-relevant to your industry

• have a large audience size

• reflect a new/hot trend

Instead, here are my revisited ingredients for successful brand + influencer collabs:

1. Pick someone unexpected, but not totally random

2. Cultural moments should inform campaign

3. Pick cultural moments that will stand the test of time

4. Niche influence over audience size

See you next week, wishing you a lovely weekend soon. Please send prayers as I have a blocked nerve + can barely keep it together. And excuse the typos!

And most websites look the same?

This is only going to get worse. With AI ad-generation tools like Icon—launched this week— marketing is only becoming more and more homogenous.

Of course, there’s value in consistency. Websites that look like the ones we love and use, instantly build trust. There’s also value in repeating what works (i.e. using viral scripts). But, most safe marketing happens against our will:

1. Lack of time/creativity

2. Poor risk assessment

The first problem is self-explanatory; we need teams that know how to stand out and surprise. I’ll help you with that in a second.

Before we do that, a quick note on risk-taking. I’ve worked with tens of startups of varying sizes.

One trend I’ve found is that the bigger the company gets, the more roles are dedicated to ‘not messing up’.

Marketing managers turn into guardians of a brand, channel, or worldview. Their job is not to re-invent the wheel, but rather prevent things from breaking down. Or, so they think.

“If this goes wrong, I might lose my job.”

This leads to bad risk appreciation. Marketers find it easier to write off any risky experiment and call it a day. Even if the company would benefit from a healthy amount of risk-taking.

There's evidence to show that weird things are easier to remember because they stand out. They break patterns.

This mechanism is called the 'bizarreness effect’.

I collected 10 examples of the 'bizarreness effect' irl. I shared them on LinkedIn earlier this week, but today I’m sharing how to implement these ideas in your own marketing.

1. Airbnb’s Polly Pocket House

// Bringing our childhood fantasies to life— reminiscent of themed kid’s birthday parties and those are the best.

⇒ How to use:

• Make dummy accounts or listings in your product (e.g. fantasy house on Airbnb)

• Use your product in an unexpected way

• Build immersive environments at events

2. Graza Olive Oil

// Graza collaborated with Dua Lipa with her custom olive oil bottle design. Why didn’t they collab with a chef? Because that’s predictable.

To see a combo of your favourite artist and a product as ‘random’ as olive oil, is unexpected. It reminds me of themed toothpaste as a kid. And most Superbowl ads.

⇒ How to use:

• When doing a limited edition collab go for a non-obvious option, yet relevant to your audience’s broader interests.

• Niche collabs work, too. Asics do this well with recent collabs with small brands (think Lack of Guidance) and influencers like .

3. AG1 phone call ad

// Using familiar UI elements in a completely different context, causes pattern interrupt. We see this screen and think someone is calling for a split-second.

⇒ How to use:

• Try this ad (although it’s been recreated since).

• Or, take a similar approach using familiar/old interfaces (e.g. the Google Search bar, the iOS photo Preview app, coding terminal)

Another fun example is who used the macOS Photo Booth UI in Feed Me’s brand identity for a while:

4. Figma’s app installation illustration

// Customise an existing design to make it feel like a Figma environment. Boring steps like installing an app, singing documents, or browser extension are easily over-looked.

⇒ How to use:

• Why not start by customising your ‘move to applications’ screen. I like how Figma kept it simple, but added almost 3D or animated effects to existing icons.

  5. Use video instead of a classic chat function

// Not enough websites use the video chat function instead of a boring chat bot. Y Combinator uses this on their hiring website. I’ve only ever looked into VideoAsk.

⇒ How to use:

• On resource-heavy pages, record answers to FAQs.

• On homepage to segment traffic to the right pages.

Someone on LinkedIn tried this and said “it’s been going well and our client has closed sales in a very small market.”

6. Jacquemus’ #shotoniphone” show ‘La Croisière’ (with Apple)

// Any collab between tech and fashion/art is bizarre, although not uncommon. Usually, fashion shows are very high production. But in an age where even the coolest fashion girls shoot blurry iPhone vids, this was a smart move by Jacquemus.

Behind the scenes shots on iPhone makes us feel like we’re casually watching a friend’s story, that features celebs getting ready.

⇒ How to use:

• The formula here is something non-tech (art, music, fashion, cars, food, travel, nature) + something tech/software. Another example:

7. Comparing across categories by David Protein

// I love this one for positioning messaging. Introducing a random, but relevant, comparison with your product.

Boiled cod is something you might eat as someone trying to consume more protein. It jumps out in this list of protein bars.

⇒ How to use:

• What other things do your users use in their workflow? Those are your indirect competitors. I’m thinking of comparing mindfulness apps to ironing clothes.

8. Arc’s pick your icon

// Most apps don’t let you pick a custom icon. This level of autonomy and ‘choosing’ means user feels like they’ve had a say in creating a product experience.

⇒ How to use:

• Let people customise their interface (colours, fonts, dashboards). I let people choose gradient backgrounds in my own app.

9. Drake’s eCommerce website recreates his irl house

// Digitising real environments has a similar effect to Airbnb’s Polly Pocket life— where fantasy and real-life meet. It’s reminiscent of video games and makes us feel closer to the brand or person behind it. As if, we get a look into their personal lives.

⇒ How to use: Decide if investing in a virtual environment is right for your website’s goal. I would reserve this for campaign landing pages, as opposed to homepages.

10. SSENSE humorous take on fashion

// Typically, fashion takes itself very seriously. SSENSE chose self-deprecating humour and their audience loves it. Compare this to a fashionbrand like Gucci, who needs to keep up appearances.

⇒ How to use:

• Develop a deep understanding of meme culture/pop culture relevant to your target audience

• Embrace a degree of self-mockery, humour, or attitude. Remember this one by Duolingo?

If you’re still here, you’re probably reading this on Substack. Which means we’re special kinda friends. Thanks for the support and happy weekend 🪄

(btw, if you haven’t yet, mind upvoting my new product on Lovable?)

Fundamentally, I completely agree; Europe needs more builders, not consultants.

Yet, I wouldn’t go so far as claim that agencies are “the cancer of Europe”.

When agencies kinda suck

I tried to understand what Pieter meant by “it’s cancer of Europe rn”. My guess is he’s referring to ‘talking about work’ versus ‘doing the work’. Consultants are notorious for their over-use of acronyms and complex explanations of simple concepts that they then charge too much for.

I liked this post by on why agencies today are broken. He argues the incentives for agencies are skewed away from generating the highest impact for their clients. I agree with most of his points:

1. Agencies over-fit their solution of choice (e.g. SEO, ads, branding) = companies don’t get what they really need

2. Companies select agencies based on big logo’s, not actual skill

3. Agencies have an incentive to push retainers, which don’t create any additional value

But is this experience Europe-specific? No.

Would I qualify agencies as the “cancer of Europe”? Also, no.

Of course, the cancer of Europe right now isn’t people opting out of minimally impactful corporate jobs to start agencies that help companies grow, build, or staff.

The case for agencies and innovation

My argument on X was that, in some cases, running an agency can serve as an effective distribution strategy for a product, such as a SaaS.

1. Scenario 1 (distribution) — You run an agency for 10 years, identify a deep client pain, develop a solution, sell to all your old and new clients. This saves you a ton of money on sales/SDR/marketing.

⇒ Famous example includes Mailchimp, which started as a web design agency in the early 2000s.

2. Scenario 2 (competitive advantage) — You work with clients under NDAs, gain insights into niche problems that are invisible to the broader market. You build a solution to solve these high-value problems and gain a defensible competitive advantage. Insights the guy straight out of university joining YC is likely to miss.

⇒ One example is Palantir, which developed tools like Palantir Gotham and Palantir Foundry, designed to handle massive datasets for government agencies and large enterprises.

3. Scenario 3 (agency-funded startup) — You outsource your healthy agency operation to someone else and re-invest your agency’s profit into your startup. You can run it bootstrapped, without external funding.

⇒ I have a few friends who went this route, including my partner, who’s been working on a SaaS tool for the past 2 years alongside our marketing agency, Double.

We’re only going to see more of this with the rise of one-man AI agencies that churn out solutions faster than ever.

Startups need runway

The biggest reason startups go bust is cashflow problems. They raise too late, can’t pay their team, and go bust. Or, they can’t find product-market-fit, don’t have the money to pivot/innovate, and can’t raise again. Having an already-healthy agency to fund your startup can relieve this problem somewhat.

Of course, starting an agency as a go-to-market strategy is probably too time-intensive. But, if you already own an agency, it could be a strong foundation to transition into building a product. Rather than bashing agency-founders, we should:

• Promote more agency-funded startups

• Encourage them to launch more productised services/software

• Promote more competition among agencies and higher quality standards

Would my time be better spent building?

Yes, and I am. I only have 10hrs of agency work per week, which makes me a decent full-time salary. The rest of my time can be spent growing my audience (this newsletter, TikTok, LinkedIn) and playing around building products or babies (lol).

Bottom-line

People who start agencies are entrepreneurs. You may not love their business, but they’re people who see problems and solve them for a living. They’re not the group of people to glorify, but they might just be one of many routes to bring more innovation to Europe.

1. “I should probably invest in audience-building”

2. “I’m not like you, I actually hate social media”

If you share this sentiment, I have good and bad news for you.

The good: you don’t need to love social media to build and audience.

The bad: social media doesn’t get any better the more you post— quite the opposite. I hit 10k followers on LinkedIn earlier this week after a year of posting, but wasn’t even that happy about it.

Despite my social media fatigue, posting on LinkedIn directly contributed to €400k in revenue for our marketing agency with zero outbound effort. It also got me promoted to agency partner at age 27.

So, I won’t be giving up on it just yet.

This milestone seemed like a good time to share some results, learnings, and what I’d do differently to build an audience today.

My method + learnings

I started posting in October 2023. Within the first 3 months, I gained about 2500 followers. This was the highest growth period to date. Here are some of the things I did:

• A course called ‘Unignorable’ (now discontinued) by Neal O’Grady and Katelyn Bourgoin

• Joined a small ‘engagement squad’ of 20 other course participants— this helped with motivation at first

• Engaged with other creators for 1-2hrs/day

• Posted in-depth carousels about growth and psychology every day

During these first few months, I also generated an average of one high quality meeting/week for our marketing agency, Double. Leads and clients included one European unicorn and multiple late-stage startups backed by VCs like a16z and YC.

Things were going great, until sometime mid-2024.

Follower growth and engagement began to stagnate. I was 6 months into posting and relied heavily on dopamine hits in the form of followers and likes. Any dip in engagement affected my mood. It was also about this time that bots, VA’s and AI-generated content began to dominate LinkedIn.

The vibe sucked.

I didn’t want to spend time on the platform. I was tired of replying to bots commenting on my posts. At some point, 50%+ of my comments were bots.

Which is when I made this video calling them out:

This general vibe-shift and drop in engagement, meant my motivation to post took a plunge. I began to post less and less. Losing momentum is a big ‘no no’ for creators, as I’d come to find out.

Here’s what I would do differently today

Upon reflection, I made a few mistakes that made my method unsustainable— despite the results. I’m planning on doing things differently from now on and encourage you to do the same:

1. Viral posts don’t generate business

Creators spend a lot of time trying to go viral— it’s a great feeling. Plus, going viral exposes a lot of people to your profile, which means you’ll generate followers. Followers that serve as social proof.

However, if your goal is leads, going viral isn’t the most effective way. This post didn’t generate a single lead, but it led to about 1500 new followers (!)

My conclusion about going viral:

→ Going viral by sharing a ‘fun fact’ or ‘controversial opinion’ you found on Reddit, doesn’t showcase your expertise or make people want to pay to work with you.

→ Going viral because you created a ton of value (e.g. deep-dive, market analysis, ‘how to’) does make people want to work with you.

2. Motivation— intrinsic (sustainable) vs. extrinsic (brute-force)

Initially, external validation and money will motivate you to keep posting. For some, it can be the motivation to post for years on end. However, this puts you in a fragile position; as soon as money or engagement decrease, your motivation takes a plunge.

You’re basically brute-forcing motivation. Allow me to illustrate:

My resolution this year is to find meaning in content creation. To invest in mastering my area of expertise (i.e. growth marketing) more deeply. To become a better educator and creator.

This may not seem like a worthwhile pursuit to some, but I know what great content has brought me— both as a consumer and business owner. Creating valuable content is no easy feat.

3. Don’t stop posting, recycle if you must

After a few months of posting, I began to feel envious of my colleagues who got to work on the cool leads I helped bring in. Content creation took about 15hrs a week and I wanted to focus exclusively on creating value my clients again.

So, “I got really busy with client work”, sounded like the perfect excuse to stop posting.

I learned very quickly that once you stop, it becomes extra hard to start again. This graphic by Josh Lowman on the ‘feast or famine cycle’ explains what happened well:

Many creators find themselves in this cycle. Positive return (i.e. leads/work) of posting is delayed. As soon as money and leads start to flow, we tend to get busy with delivery and reduce our number of posts. Of course, we only really feel the need to post again once leads begin to dry up again.

4. Engagement is just as important as posting

Engaging with others creators through comments is a great way to bypass the algorithm and get your profile in front of a new audience. Commenting early on posts with something meaningful to say, accounted for a very good portion of my new followers and leads.

Do not, however, comment if you have nothing funny or smart to say. Your goal should be to write comments that generate 20+ likes. If you don’t think your comment will, sit this one out.

5. Beware of the ego-trap

Sometime in the middle of my content journey, I got bored with my content niche (i.e. psychology in marketing). I stopped learning anything new and didn’t even consider behavioural science to be much of a science at all.

Experiments in psychology are extremely hard to replicate, meaning some of the ‘biases’ we find to explain human behaviour are backed by little evidence.

I decided to shift gears and try out different content. Talking about things that interested me like growth, innovation, and culture.

My content became scattered. I was no longer the ‘psychology in marketing’ girl. No clear positioning = leads don’t understand you.

6. Find what works and milk it

Milk whatever content, format, or angle works. You’ve found your version of product-market-fit. It doesn’t matter if you feel you’ve outgrown it, as long as your audience still finds your insights valuable.

Sticking to something, despite personally outgrowing it, can be hard because you’ll start to feel like an imposter. You’ll feel like you’re going to be found out and people will think you talk about the same thing too much.

Reality: most people aren’t on LinkedIn all day, so they won’t think of you more than a few times a month.

7. Make friends

Lastly, the content creation journey gets lonely. Chances are, you don’t know many people that post on LinkedIn daily and who feel the same frustrations, doubts, and share the same goals. I’ve made a few friends that made this journey bearable (lol). I’d like to give them a special mention:

Kuba Czubajewski — Kuba and I talk every day. He’s one of the funniest people I know. I admire his insane work ethic and the value he creates for his followers.

Jonathan Crowder — Jonathan is the perfect example of a someone who doesn’t fit the stereotypical ‘creator’ profile, but is killing it. By that I mean, he’s a busy guy (and Dad) running a company. He has every excuse not to post, but continues to create value without complaining.

Earlier this week I gave a short talk about audience building for Lisbon SaaS Founders. We’ll be organising more events in Lisbon soon, join here.

Curious to hear if you’d like more content about the reality of content creation. I’ve gotten some questions about this, so thought I’d share :)

All of last year, I consulted on growth and marketing for InsideTracker— one of Andrew Huberman’s biggest podcast sponsors at the time.

You might know Huberman as Silicon Valley’s longevity darling. He is a neuroscientist and professor at Stanford University with 6M+ followers in Youtube.

Some of his most popular videos include ‘how & why to meditate’ and ‘grow bigger, stronger muscles’. The common thread? Multiple-hour-long educational videos on improving ‘longevity’.

The aim of longevity is to improve human (or animal) lifespan (# of years we live) and health span (# of healthy years). The longevity industry includes companies that focus on things like hormone health, sleep, and diet:

• content/communities (e.g. Bryan Johnson’s “Don’t Die”)

• hardware (e.g. Oura ring, WHOOP, Eight Sleep)

• supplements (e.g. AG1, Thorne)

• biotech innovations (e.g. Ozempic, CRISPR, gene therapy)

By 2030, the global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market is expected to grow to $44.2 billion, with a CAGR of 7.4%.

In this post, I’ll be sharing my 2025 predictions for the consumer longevity industry. Looking at it from the perspective of a marketer/founder/consumer.

Why now?

The past few years have seen a growing number of successful consumer-facing products targeted at longevity:

• At-home testing kits versus needing to go to a lab— removed a big hurdle

• Wide adoption of fitness trackers = new health data

• DNA testing kits to detect probability of future disease (e.g. Alzheimer)

• Supplements

We’ve also seen important scientific advancements speeding up longevity research and drug discovery:

• AI for data analysis and machine learning

• CRISPR for gene-editing

• Various use cases for mRNA, GLP-1 (e.g. Ozempic)

As a marketer, working in longevity is a dream: there's potential for real impact on public health, educating new audiences, and a lot of money being invested.

Of course, we’re seeing a lot of snake oil, too. But that’s for some other time.

Predictions for consumer longevity in 2025

These 2025 predictions are based on my marketing work in the space and as a long-time consumer of longevity products. I’ll refrain from commenting too much on technologies that haven’t been commercialised yet.

1  — Products (blood biomarker tests, wearables, hardware)

1. For companies that sell blood biomarker tests like Function Health or InsideTracker, the player with the most strategic partnerships will win. Think insurance providers, healthcare providers, and corporate wellness programs.

   1. Same is true for the one with the highest retention (MRR).

   2. For expensive tests, branding matters a lot. They are still considered a luxury.

2. For now, distribution via influencer marketing and paid acquisition is still a solid strategy.

   1. However, rising CAC due to competition and channel saturation will eventually make it near-impossible for DTC models to work. Today’s best performers have in-house influencers. Think of Function Health (Mark Hyman with 3.2M Instagram followers) and Blueprint (Bryan Johnson who released a Netflix documentary last week).

3. There will be replications of existing products, but for niches like female hormone health (see Muse Health or Guud) and sleep (Oura ring).

4. Niche hardware products will do well— air purifiers, LED lights, mattresses (e.g. Eight Sleep), continuous glucose monitors, wearable trackers.

   1. Declining costs in hardware, means there will be more wearable products offered at lower price points or with no upfront cost, but with a subscription instead (e.g. WHOOP or Maven Pet).

   2. Eventually, innovation/value in these wearable devices will hit a ceiling. More features = frequent charging. Progress will follow advancements in microchip technology and battery capacity.

2 — New and growing markets

1. Companies like Loyal (raised more than $125 million since 2019) are studying longevity in dogs. Their short lifespans may mean we’ll get interesting insights into human longevity sooner rather than later.

   1. Conversely, there will be replication of tried and tested ‘for-human’ products for pets (e.g. Modern Animal, 24/7 virtual veterinary care).

The other day Greg Isenberg mentioned someone should build the “Athletic Greens for pets”. Here’s what I think.

2. As always, the biggest winners will be the platforms and tools that enable innovation— just like NVIDIA did for semiconductor manufacturing. One example is Gingko Bioworks (biopharma manufacturing).

3. Influencers will continue to launch not-so-innovative-yet-harmless supplements. Think anti-glucose spike supplements by Glucose Goddess or this anti-aging “Beckham Stack” for €144/month.

3 — Biotech and drug discovery

1. Of course, real disruption will only come from companies like General Proximity or Isomorphic Labs (by Google Deepmind CEO and Nobel Laureate, Demis Hassabiss). These companies have a strong thesis, backed by years of research.

   1. Regulation and money for R&D are the biggest factors for success here. Their job is to market to VC’s and regulators. No need for consumer marketing just yet.

   2. Silicon Valley will continue to invest in biotech (prominent investors include Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, and Sam Altman).

2. We’ll start to see the fruit of AI in biotech innovation. Machine learning will continue to be used for faster drug discovery, image data labeling, and even virtual clinical care.

4 — Marketing and influencers

1. Science influencers like Huberman will continue to make well into the 6 figures off longevity startups. They can ask premium rates, essentially skimming off most of a company’s profit.

   1. Influencers won’t even need to launch their own products, but can always change their mind.

2. Also, scientists will become cool/sexy.

3. For supplements like Thorne, it will become a game of ‘best brand, biggest ad/influencer budget’. Although, I suspect AG1 might have taught us to become more skeptical.

4. ‘Cool kid’ longevity start-ups will realise they need move beyond 25 to 30-year-olds working in tech and start marketing to older millennials and baby boomers. You know, people who actually need their products.

   1. The oldest Millennials are turning 44 this year. This is considered middle-aged, and happens to be when fear of death peaks, according to research.

   2. The most sought-after audience for marketers in longevity will be older millennial listeners of podcasts like The Huberman Lab or Chris Williamson.

5. Bryan Johnson from ‘Don’t Die’ will go Elon Musk-level mainstream. His Netflix documentary might have been exactly what he needed to convert older demographics.

   1. Johnson will continue to demonstrate his impressive PR dance around controversy and ethics. Marketers take note.

6. Maybe, we’ll see non-longevity companies embrace the longevity angle in campaigns. I would do this if I were Loop Earplugs (e.g. “this person is 18, but her ears are 47”).

5 — Consumer habits and sentiment

1. We will see a dichotomy between increased ‘productivity fatigue’ resulting in people rebelling and the highest number sober-curious consumers in a while.

2. The rich will travel to places like Próspera in Honduras for experimental therapies like young blood transfusion, HBOT, and eventually stem cell therapy. Living longer will become the ultimate luxury.

3. People will become more educated on basic biology concepts (e.g. Athletic Greens contain too little % of each supplement to be impactful).

4. More politics. We’ll see topics like longevity, access to health, gene-editing, big Pharma become more politicised than ever. Mirroring the reaction to the murder of UnitedHealth Group CEO, Brian Thompson.

5. The impact of GLP-1 (e.g. Ozempic) on humanity will be comparable to that of AI. Commercialisation at scale of similar drugs will bring obesity to an all-time low. Maybe, it’s already happening?

What I’d like to see

• Disruptions in prominent disease reversal or slowing (e.g. HIV, cancer). I know this hits close to home for a lot of us.

• For longevity startups to focus on more pressing demographics (chronic pain, elderly population). We’re seeing early adopters (tech bros) optimise the final 10% of their health. I’d like to see successful marketing toward less educated audiences.

• Faster, virtual diagnosis of things like skin cancer, heart attacks, diabetes.

• An all-time low in obesity would pretty cool, too.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with this contrarian take on longevity by Musk. What do you think?

Subscribe now

This post took me a lot of time to write. If you liked it, consider subscribing to this newsletter. Or sharing this post with someone who might like it 🫶

Talk soon,
Louise

→ A new workout routine warrants a fresh pair of leggings.

→ Building muscle mass requires protein powder.

→ Cooking at home would be more fun with a new pan.

Last month, I did exactly this. I bought new hiking shoes hoping they’d make me want to go hiking. The hike is still pending.

Why do we do we buy stuff when we set new goals?

Buying things releases dopamine, which makes us feel good temporarily. This dopamine lets us reap early rewards associated with our goal before even starting. Of course, buying new gear doesn’t mean we’ve made any meaningful progress toward losing weight—it just feels like it.

Shopping is a cheap—or rather, expensive— way to pretend you’re making progress on new goals/habits.

What’s more, is that we hope our new purchases— and subsequent loss of money (i.e. loss aversion)— will provide accountability to stick to a new habit. You’ve spent money on it now, so you can’t back out. Of course, all the half-empty jars of protein powder should serve as a reminder that this ‘accountability’ inevitably withers.

I’ve made a list of things you might be tempted to buy in January, but might reconsider:

• New pens or fun stationery for all the resolution tracking

• Stainless steel containers, because you heard microplastics are bad for you

• Protein powder because getting in 180g of protein per day seems impossible

• Books, the unread ones on the shelf just aren’t cutting it

• A Kindle, for similar reasons

• Supplements you don’t even know you really need

• Workout clothes

• Skincare to help with the post-holiday acne

Personally, this year I set out (once again) to cook from home more. After all the festivities and dining out, I’m craving healthy, home-cooked meals. I felt like a new pan—like this one or this one—might make cooking easier to stick to.

I actively decided against a new pan until further notice. Trust me, I was very close to buying one yesterday.

What can we do instead of spending money to feel productive quickly?

Simple: make progress on smaller goals. Part of why we buy all of this stuff is because we’ve set big goals that feel unattainable. Shopping offers a way to gain control.

Instead of shopping, completing small goals can provide all the motivation we need. Small accomplishments give us confidence to stick to harder goals (e.g., losing weight, making more money, finding a new job).

A list of ways to feel productive in January without spending money:

1. Tidying or deep-cleaning your house—YouTube if you don’t know how.

2. “Project Pan”—emptying as many (makeup) products as possible.

3. Decluttering your closet. I love Allison Bornstein’s closet editing system.

4. Selling clothing on Vinted— I made €380 in 2 days last time I did this.

5. Try intermittent fasting. I feel a daily sense of accomplishment after a 17+ hour fast. It requires no effort, if done right. If you’re a woman and you’re new to IF, you might like this book.

6. Disinfecting your electronics after travel. At least, cleaning your screens.

7. Challenging yourself to cook most of the recipes in your cookbook(s).

8. Setting out to read one book per month that you already own. The problem isn’t the book, it’s that reading is hard. Track progress with a reading challenge on Goodreads. I didn’t complete my 2024 goal one, we’re changing that this year.

4. Flossing daily and actually brushing your teeth for the full 2 minutes twice a day. My dental hygienist says 5 minutes is best (lol).

5. Reviewing your 2024 spending in your banking app. Decide which categories need work, when you spend most, how much you’d like to save etc.

If you still feel the itch to spend, I think these are a few solid options:

• Paying for repairs on clothes or shoes.

• Cleaning products that make cleaning more fun (we love Scrub Daddy).

• A new toothbrush. Enough with the wooden ones!

• A simple, ugly notebook that’s not too precious to use (like this one).

• Bloodwork, so you don’t buy supplements you don’t need.

• Candles to elevate at-home dinners (the simple kind, not the fancy ones).

A few mantras to end with

→ “Buying stuff does not equal making progress”

→ “It’s ok to start with smaller goals”

→ “You don’t need new stuff to start a new habit”

→ “Sense of accomplishment lasts longer than dopamine from a new purchase”

Were you tempted to buy anything before starting a new healthy habit this month? I’m curious.

According to Forbes, about 38% of people get a divorce as a result of financial problems. This is not to say that anyone who fights about money will get a divorce.

But, considering shared finances are a big part of couples’ lives, I thought I’d investigate what exactly couples disagree about.

A poll

I took to Instagram and polled my followers (read: friends). I got about 50 responses, mainly from people in their late 20s/30s.

The result

73% of people say they have disagreements with their partner about money. And I seriously suspect some of the people who denied disagreeing with their partner about money, didn’t understand the question.

In a follow-up question, I asked people what they disagreed on regarding money:

• how much to spend or save (32%)

• what to spend on (18%)

• financial goals (7%)

• unexpected expenses (43%)

‘Unexpected expenses’ was the clear winner. My theory on this is as follows:

Most couples have a plan for the predictable expenses (recurring, holiday, financial goals). These expenses are discussed when everyone is calm and rational. We’re a team.

But, as soon as something unexpected happens; a large bill or someone buys something that wasn’t agreed upon, conflict occurs.

“Couldn’t you have seen this coming?”

“It’s always the same with you!”

This is because, unexpected events bring out emotions like fear or loss of a sense of control. We know that losing control over our finances implies very real risks. And so, we lash out at our partners or disagree.

It’s not rational, it’s a bit dramatic, but it happens.

The ways to avoid conflict are pretty obvious:

1. Date a person with a low-neuroticism personality type

2. Or plan/discuss how to act in case of unexpected expense

P.S. This poll is anonymous! If you want to participate in my polls, follow Spendish on Instagram. And don’t be shy to share this result with your partner by forwarding this email.

Talk soon,

Louise

Maybe you’d:

• Leave the job you hate

• Ditch the toxic relationship

• Build a new product, get creative

• Start a company

When I tell people about what I’m building on with Spendish, they often ask: “So, you’re helping people shop less?”

My answer is: not quite.

As a marketer, I’d be out of a job if people stopped shopping or consuming—consumption drives economies.

The problem I’m tackling is that bad consumption habits are stopping people from building wealth. The wealth they need to take risks and do what they want.

People taking fewer risks isn’t just a personal issue; it could be catastrophic for our economy.

In recent years, the number of new startups founded has decreased drastically. In part, due to less risk-taking on behalf of investors.

Yet, to quote Crunchbase, “Entrepreneurs who are able and willing to bootstrap their ventures — relying on their own resources and revenue generation — can leverage the current downturn to their advantage.”

You can take risk and become free.

Risk-taking is a privilege, don’t waste it

In theory, many people in the West should have the opportunity to leave a job or relationship they hate, or even start a business. Yet, they don’t.

If we don't take risks, who will?

For the majority of the rest of the World, taking such risks is simply inconceivable. Economic realities, wars, and societal status (e.g. gender or caste) predetermine futures. To an extent that most of us cannot begin to imagine.

So why, in the West, are so many trapped by our own spending habits, living paycheck to paycheck? Essentially, waving the privilege that is risk-taking.

Can we blame Capitalism?

Capitalism is a framework for economic growth. The problem isn't that it exists—again, it's a framework—it's how we engage with it. One trait of a capitalist economy is consumption. And sometimes, over-consumption.

We over-consume to soothe emotional pain or to keep up with societal pressures—often at the expense of long-term wealth building.

Many of us spend compulsively to cope with very human feelings:

• People who feel unworthy, spend money

• People who seek status, spend money

• People who are stressed/bored, spend money

Humans use money to reduce emotional pain.

Why I’m building Spendish

Today, if you’d like to build healthier spending habits, you’ll be presented with a budgeting template. Maybe, some tough love from a partner or friend to keep you ‘in check’.

I know, from experience, that these things alone don’t work.

It’s all cognitive and rational. Tactics that rely on willpower, which often tapers off by the third week of the month. Right when fear of failure, shame, and guilt about money take over again. New temptations arise.

To cope, we spend again and give up.

Something needs to shift emotionally if we want to break this pattern.

I trust you can find the strategies on how to budget, save, or invest—but I’m here to help with the psychology of money and spending. To help you be more mindful and build lasting habits.

Why I care

Because I know what people are capable of when they ask, “If money weren’t an issue, I would…”

Getting a grip on our finances is about more than just ‘shopping less.’

This makes it sound trivial—a first-world problem. Instead, it’s about making people financially responsible so they feel more confident; to innovate and become better. To build companies, raise children, take care of those around them.

I want people to feel like they have choices—not to be stuck doing something they hate because they live paycheck to paycheck. Economically speaking, unmotivated people who stay in jobs they hate are extremely unproductive.

To stop being a prisoner of their own lifestyle.

My credentials

• I’m a recovering shopaholic (who’s saving more than she ever has this year)

• I run a marketing agency—so I know what brands do to sell you stuff

• I’ve tried saving, budgeting, and ‘no buys’ for years and understand why they don’t always work

• I studied Psychology at university

Ultimately, I just know how you feel.

The content I write on here and post on Instagram, are driven by your needs/questions. I’d love to learn what drives you to overspend. Or feel guilty/bad about money.

Drop me a comment/message to chat.

I’ve decided to make chances to this letter. If you’re here, you may know me from LinkedIn, where I write about marketing/growth.

What you may not know is that, alongside my agency, I am working on a set of personal finance tools. The goal is to help people, like myself, rethink their spending habits. Hence, the rebrand to .

This letter is my first step. With it, I’ll cover the topics below.

If you’re here for marketing content, don’t leave yet. I intend to share my process of building and marketing these tools. Finding early users, growing a community organically, and product updates (as a non-technical founder).

I’ll share what works and what doesn’t.

— Louise

Sneaky ways stores get you to buy stuff

I consider myself a 'shop experience and design' expert. My experience dates back to the year 2003, playing ‘fruit market’ with my little sister. I was a kind, yet persistent sales-person.

Today, most of my experience comes from doing the actual shopping. Usually, in over-priced clothing stores. Over time, I've picked up on the things stores do that influence our decision-making without us noticing.

I’d like to share these observations with you, so we can all stop falling for them.

Obvious factors

If you’ve ever been to an Abercrombie & Fitch store, you’ll know brands use perfume to influence buyers. Studies show that scent and light positively impact consumption behaviour. Apparently, “the atmosphere of the place can be more influential than the product itself in the purchase decision” (Summers & Herbert, 2001).

The same is true for music. A supermarket without absolute bangers playing in the background? I’ll pass.

Maybe you’ve noticed the role of layout. Supermarkets place their brightest, freshest products at the start of the journey. It turns out, layout can make customers more acceptable of certain pricing, which positively impacts purchase behaviour (Grewal and Baker, 1994).

Not-so-obvious factors

Now for some influences that weren’t as obvious to me, but that I’ve started to take note of.

→ the cool ‘n kind sales assistant

The 'halo effect' explains how a positive impression of a salesperson can lead us to feel better about the entire shopping experience, making us more likely to buy. Consumers transfer positive feelings about a person to their entire shopping experience, leading to a higher likelihood of a purchase.

There’s one study that even suggests attractiveness of a salesperson increases perceived value of the product, making us more likely to buy (Sundar and Noseworthy, 2016).

Getting along nicely with a sales assistant? Or think they’re kind of cool? Ask yourself how this is biasing you to buy more.

→ reciprocity

Along these lines, anytime we receive something for free from a sales person, we tend to feel indebted. Even if it’s a simple glass of champagne, someone’s time, or a discount.

This feeling of debt toward a sales person can be a strong driver to restore this imbalance and repay the debt. According to Robert Cialdini, people often repay this debt disproportionately.

For example, someone offers us a coffee while we shop and we buy a pair of overpriced jeans. Always remember, it’s just a drink.

→ curation sells experiences

Brands know they should sell experiences, not just products. This is where curation comes in. Clothing stores know that going beyond a single category sells. Homeware, furniture, magazines can elevate the meaning we give things like clothes. That’s because they all become part of a lifestyle or identity to aspire to.

I have an example of curation that worked on me this Summer when I went to a store in Biarritz— a surf town in France.

For context, in Summer, Biarritz is brimming with beautiful longboards, bandana-wearing dogs, and laid-back vibes. By the time I arrived at the store, I was primed for life as a surfer.

The store seemed like a gateway to that lifestyle, but in the end, it was just products (and some palo santo 🪵).

→ fellow shoppers

Some stores don’t have mirrors in their fitting rooms. To see the full fit, customers need to exit their fitting room. Usually, posing awkwardly in front of other shoppers.

I can’t help but think it’s to nudge you to come out and tempt other clients with the clothing. The effect of other shoppers relates to ‘social proof’; the endorsement by other buyers of a certain product can lead to higher likelihood of buying.

To see other, stylish shoppers by your side gives the store physical social proof you wouldn’t experience online.

→ touch and ownership effect

Apparently, customers who touch items in a store are more likely to feel a sense of ownership (Peck and Shu, 2009). This leads to a higher likelihood of purchase. Simply trying something on or touching it makes us feel as though the item already belongs to us.

→ space, light, displays = easy decision-making

Compare this concept store…

to this vintage store.

Vintage stores aren’t for the faint-hearted. Finding real gems takes hours of digging through tightly-packed racks. If you’re like me, you tend to walk out empty-handed after just a few minutes.

I personally don’t deal well with the decision-fatigue. When I’m overwhelmed with decisions and choices, I tend to rage-quit without buying anything.

Stores know that a clean, uncluttered, bright space can significantly reduce decision-fatigue. This is particularly important when items are expensive, already requiring a higher degree of decision-making.

If you fell in love with an item because it was displayed nicely, take note. Chances are it’ll end up in a dark closet at home, anyways.

Takeways 🥡

1. Sensory experiences can influence us to buy. If you’re enjoying a shop’s vibe a little too much, be mindful.

2. Nice or cool people will make you want to buy things because of the ‘halo effect’ and social proof.

3. Don’t feel like you need to repay a small ‘debt’ (i.e. champagne or someone’s time) by buying things.

4. Beware of stores that sell an experience or lifestyle. Stores that sell a lifestyle use this strategy to make you buy more.

For more regular updates, follow me on Instagram. I share my personal budget breakdowns and other thoughts.

Follow on Instagram

Where great writing, like that of Hemingway and Austen, feels unattainable, clear writing is within most people’s reach. Clear writing is mostly about avoiding basic mistakes.

1 — Don’t bury the lede

Most writers think they need to ‘set a scene’. Most readers, however, lose interest beyond the first sentence or two. The Pyramid Principle, popularised by McKinsey, tells us to state the main idea first, then back it up with arguments, insights, and examples.

But how do we know how to formulate that main idea?

2 — Start with undisputed assertions

Start by stating facts or assertions that are universally accepted and cannot be disputed. Then, introduce your thesis.

Starting with a statement most people agree with builds trust—the trust you need to introduce new ideas.

For example, “most startups fail”.

Now contrast this with an opening claim like “most startups fail because founders lose focus”. You might argue loss of focus on behalf of founders is the reason startups fail, but it is certainly not a fact most people agree on.

Of course, your thesis and supporting arguments don’t have to be things everyone agrees on.

“Most people agree that startups fail [undisputed claim]. I will argue that a main cause of startup failure today is loss of focus by founders [thesis].”

Let’s take a closer look at how to present your arguments in a convincing manner.

3 — Build a logical structure

Good news: 80% of good argumentation is avoiding bad logic. Your job as a writer is to avoid any sudden or surprising jumps in logic. Do this before you put your pen on paper.

Allow me to illustrate with some examples of good versus bad logic:

☑️ Good logic

• Thesis: “Most startups fail for different reasons than they did in the 20th century.”

• Argument 1: “They fail today due to a lack of a viable business model.”

• Argument 2: “Inadequate funding is also a common issue for startups nowadays.”

• Conclusion: “Therefore, we can attribute the high failure rate of modern startups to bad business models and insufficient funding.”

→ This is good logic because each argument refers back to the thesis, answering the question, ‘how are reasons for failure different today?’

❌ Bad logic

• Thesis: “Most startups fail for different reasons than they did in the 20th century.”

• Irrelevant Argument 1: “Today’s market is more globalised, allowing startups to reach international audiences quickly.”

• Irrelevant Argument 2: “Technology has advanced significantly since the 20th century.”

• Unrelated Conclusion: “Thus, startups today should not fail because of the availability of advanced technology and global markets.”

→ These are not arguments that support the thesis but rather facts or evidence to be used as part of arguments. This feels incomplete.

How to Avoid Logic Jumps

• Start with a thesis (e.g., “most startups fail for different reasons than they did in the 20th century”).

• Make each paragraph refer back to this thesis with supporting arguments.

• Use evidence, data, and examples to support each argument.

4 — Transition sentences

Without ‘flow’, text becomes very hard to follow, making reading high effort. Transition sentences let each point flow naturally from the previous one. This lets readers move effortlessly from one argument to the next.

For example:

“We established that many startups today fail because they lack a viable business model. But what about startups that do have a viable business model and still fail? Let’s explore another important cause of startup death—lack of funds.”

Transition sentences should conclude one part and hint at what’s to come. Hint at a question that remains unanswered (e.g., “what other things cause startup failure?”). Or an objection (e.g., “what about startups that do have a viable business model and still fail?”).

(!) Transition sentences are not the place to introduce new, important pieces of information. That could be both confusing and distracting—a deadly writing sin.

5 — Remove distractions

With every new word or sentence, ask “is this really necessary?”. The goal of every sentence is to make readers read the next sentence.

Things that are distracting to the reader:

• Concepts without definitions—don’t assume (!)

• Difficult words—could this be a simpler word?

• Long sentences

• Glossing over possible counter-arguments

• Long-winded introductions

Reducing distractions does not mean you’re writing for a dumber audience. It simply means you’re helping readers decide what’s worth their effort and attention.

Clear writing takes some muscle to build. But hopefully, with these tips, you’ll be off writing killer ads, landing pages, or pitch decks.

A quick recap:

• Get to the point—main idea first.

• Start with undisputed assertions—this builds trust.

• Build a logical structure—before you start writing (!).

• Use transition sentences.

• Remove distractions.

Let me know in the comments which tips you find most helpful.

— Louise

Recent ones include InsideTracker and Concierge Auctions. These are companies that have found product-market fit and raised a Series B or C round of funding.

They tend to run into similar issues.

They’ve grown tremendously thanks to one or two channels/tactics. But at some point, the returns of said channels dry up 👀

They reach a plateau and need help to unlock further growth. Usually, this requires re-thinking the status quo.

Of course, as an established company re-inventing things comes with risk(s):

⇒ Taking away resources from a channel that’s still performing

⇒ Innovating too much and breaking the channel forever

These companies often run into a problem knowing they want to take risks to grow, without destroying what’s gotten them to this point.

We can’t expect incumbents or growth stage companies to behave like startups. But that doesn’t mean they should eliminate risk-taking altogether.

So, what can they do?

Pulling the right risk levers

They need to contain where creativity and risk-taking happens. They should not take risks where the possible negative outcomes are too big to come back from (i.e. destroying the best-performing channel).

In his interview with , Jorge Mazal (former CPO of Duolingo) describes how they wanted to maximise the impact of push notifications to spark growth. Alongside gamification, the use of push notifications is a growth strategy Duolingo has become well-known for.

Jorge knew there was more to gain from their push notifications.

But remembered to look at Groupon for a cautionary tale. For the longest time, Groupon sent only one email notification per day. They made the mistake of increasing the email cadence. A risky lever to pull on a valuable channel like email.

“Over time, the accumulation of Groupon’s aggressive email tests had basically destroyed their channel.”

Jorge, aware of the risks involved with increasing the cadence of notifications, had one rule:

“For our push notifications, we established one foundational rule: protect the channel.”

Before taking any risks or making changes, they set parameters. A sandbox to play in, if you will.

“We decided to give the team a lot of freedom to optimize on dimensions like timing, templates, images, copy, localization, etc., but they could not increase the quantity of notifications without strong justification and CEO approval.”

That last bit tells how seriously they took the possibly disastrous outcome of breaking the push notifications channel.

"Never cross a river that is on average four feet deep"

This metaphor is often used by author, Nassim Taleb. It underscores the idea that even if a risk seems manageable on average, the potential for catastrophic outcomes (like deeper parts of the river) can’t be ignored.

The metaphor tells us we shouldn’t underestimate severity of possible negative outcomes of change. Some examples of ‘catastrophic’ outcomes:

• Abruptly changing branding and alienating loyal customers (let’s not forget the famous Tropicana rebrand leading to 20% decrease in sales)

• Increasing the cadence of emails, making people unsubscribe

• Changing the entire UI of a product that people have come to love, causing user migration to competitors

Final thoughts

This is not to say companies need to stop taking risks to spark further growth and innovation.

In fact, they need to innovate or else they’ll die.

To take risks responsibly, teams simply become aware of which levers are most risky to pull. And let those be ‘off-limits’ until further notice.

Are you currently working at a growth-stage company and not sure how to take responsible risks? Maybe I can help. Feel free to reach out via LinkedIn or email for a chat.

Of course, as busy founders and marketers it’s easy to deprioritise the investment in trust factors. These factors include things like clarity, consistent design, and brand promises.

They’re not particularly sexy to work on, but they are vital.

To help you out, I’ve compiled a list of things that increase trust on behalf of your audience:

1. Not-so-polished assets (e.g. the text-only email, the official-looking contract). This one is counter-intuitive. Let’s remember that trust is about familiarity and authenticity. Less polished can seem more human, familiar, or honest.
   
   I like this example by Superhuman, the email tool.

2. Plain explanation of what the company does. Instead of big promises, explain your offer like you would explain it to would to a 5-year-old, then a 10-year-old, and so on.

   Plain language by Amplitude (in 2019):

   

   
   Versus big, vague promises (in 2021):

3. Reply speed. Getting a fast reply from support or via social media is an instant trust builder. Despite this trend toward automation, recent examples like Vestiaire Collective and Klarna still stand out.
   
   The latter claims it automated the work of 700 people. I learned this after I had a particularly smooth experience with Klarna’s customer support.

4. Email confirmation/receipts. In design, the ‘feedback principle’ tells us users typically expect some form of feedback or confirmation when they complete an action. In this same vain, users expect some form of confirmation or proofs of payment via email.
   

5. Localisation. Tailored user experiences to a native language and local cultural norms builds trust. It shows the audience the company understands nuances and important local references.
   
   Duolingo did this well with their Duolingo India campaigns and dedicated Instagram page. The animated characters and scripts were all adapted to local audiences.

6. Helpful UX copy in a friendly tone. One of my favourite ways to build trust is completely free. It’s by writing thoughtful microcopy throughout a design. The goal of UX copy is to guide users through a process, so never sacrifice clarity.
   
   But why not be kind, funny, or niche, too?
   
   Check out this example by Slack on a loading page:

7. Real customer reviews. Fake reviews immediately break trust. Having legitimate reviews from verified purchasers on third-party sites like Google or Trustpilot is key.
   
   The link to reviews is the third item on Ramp’s homepage:

8. Associations or accreditations. Being associated with or accredited by respected businesses or organisations lends credibility by association.
   

9. Pictures of real humans vs. stock photography. Allow me to expand on the definition of stock photos; it also includes staged photoshoots that look like stock photos.
   

10. Consistent, accessible design. A cohesive, well-designed experience that follows accessibility best practices signals professionalism and inclusivity.
    
    I’ll let you in on a secret. Most designers use the iOS (Apple) and Material (Google) design systems. This makes it much easier to stick to cohesive, familiar design.
    
    Pssst, quick Google search will show you there are many more design systems to use.

11. Influencer recommendations. In case you were, don’t sleep on influencer marketing. Influencers are master storytellers who know your audience better than anyone else.

12. Acknowledging any weakness (“our product is NOT good for X”). Candidly admitting when your product may not be the best fit for certain use cases demonstrates honesty.
    
    Famously, Listerine openly advertised the negative aspect of their product. This is what an honest review of a product by a friend would do, too. Suggesting there is no hidden agenda.
    

    

13. Founder's story. The "why we're doing this thing" of a company is a great way to create rapport with buyers. The story of a person behind a brand is much more relatable.
    
    Think Elon Musk or the ‘reluctant hero’ story. I believe this is one of the reasons people enjoy watching Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den. We love relatable founders and brands. Some of my favourite appearances include Ghia (alcohol alternative) and Kimai (lab-grown diamonds).

    

14. Specifically calling out the audience. Whether you like the offer or not, it’s easy to see Tori Dunlap’s “Her First 100k” has extremely clear positioning. It screams "This product is for women trying to make money investing”.
    
    Calling out her intended audience directly creates a sense of recognition.

15. Simple language. Ditch the glitzy marketing talk that no one would use. It immediately makes buyers feel they’re being sold to.

A few takeaways

• Trust is not about logic — more polished doesn’t always mean more legit

• The more human you look, the more trustworthy (for now) — when in doubt on how to build more trust, act more like a human

• Be predictable — it’s a tricky balance between being original and unique in branding or design versus being what’s familiar to people

I wrote this list with my co-workers over at Double. We’re a marketing agency for growth-stage companies. Past clients include TikTok, InsideTracker, and PVH.

If you’d like to learn more or work with us, drop me a line on LinkedIn or via email.

(If you’re here through LinkedIn, welcome!)

My posts' reach has been increasing, my following is nearing 5000 (a 5x increase), and I have brought in several new leads for my agency.

One day, things changed.

I posted a meme of a skeleton chilling on a bench and engagement tanked 📉📉📉

“Maybe it’s just an outlier.” I brushed it off.  

Until a few weeks later, I naively included the word “sex” in my post. Once again, reach and engagement hit an all-time low. 

LinkedIn doesn’t like you

We cannot know with certainty what happened here.

Maybe it was the hook, timing, or content. The only thing we know is that LinkedIn’s business model does not hinge on creators.

LinkedIn’s goal is to build quality professional relationships, not to make creators rich.

We can see how this is inconvenient for creators who depend on the platform. If platforms censor our content, this could be bad for business.

Let’s take a look at creator monetisation today and how decentralised social media (DeSo) built on the blockchain might shake things up soon. 

Monetisation today

The options for creators to monetise their digital content aren’t great. Here’s a breakdown:

1. Ad revenue share on YouTube.
   Creators earn a percentage of ad revenue from their videos. This was great until it wasn’t. Not respecting advertising guidelines could result in demonetisation.
   

2. Brand sponsorship.
   Many creators have now switched to direct brand sponsorships. A more reliable, long-term relationship with brands is a good thing. The downside? Brands could still dictate video content, limiting full creativity.
   
   Another downside is audiences seeing sponsored content as inauthentic.
   

3. Online business revenue (subscription, courses, products).
   Some creators share free content to drive acquisition for digital products (courses, newsletters, and art).
   
   The problem is that platforms tend to penalise the inclusion of external links (i.e. anything that sends users away from their platform).
   
   See the Substack and Twitter feud. Even LinkedIn is known for deprioritising posts that include external links.
   

4. Offline business revenue.
   If you are a founder of an offline business, free digital content can drive traction and acquisition. This does not solve the original content monetisation. 

The problem is that platforms have an incentive to keep brands or subscription users happy, not creators. Censorship, demonetisation, and deprioritisation of content are all symptoms of this fundamental issue.

If you agree that creators create value, you should care about improving how creators are rewarded.

What happens if nothing changes? 

Without adequate rewards for creators, there will be fewer incentives to invest in quality content. 

A creator’s only option will be to paywall content. Resulting in a possible decrease in the quality of free content. Inevitably, this will worsen users’ experience on platforms. 

You might argue that the best creators do end up getting rewarded. 

Only a tiny percentage of creators are rewarded. 

The market is not as efficient as it could be. The bulk of people creating value still don’t make any money at all. 

Let’s put things into perspective. Here’s what it takes to earn $1000: 

• Spotify: 300 to 350k song streams

• YouTube: 100k video views

• TikTok: at least 1-3 million video views

To earn the equivalent of a month's salary, a creator would have to hit these targets 2-4 times per month. 

The truth is that most creators will quit before they get here.

The amount of time and effort required to produce quality content is not proportionate to the expected reward one can expect. This is without factoring in the personal toll of creation. 

Let’s take a look at some positive trends. All of this may change very soon. 

A short case for decentralised social media (DeSo)

Here’s a simple analogy to help you wrap your head around decentralised social media:

Imagine a big, open playground where everyone gets to play, share, and talk without having to go through a single gatekeeper. Instead of one company owning the whole place and deciding who gets to do what, it's managed by everyone who visits.

Blockchain is the technology that makes this possible. Very simply put, blockchain records ownership of digital stuff (money, content, art, tokens).

For a deeper dive into decentralisation, I recommend reading “Why Decentralization Matters” by Chris Dixon.

Back to the playground. What would this big open playground look like for creators? 

• Receive rewards directly from audiences (not just ad revenue/brand partnerships)

• Let audiences—not platforms—decide on ‘best content’

• Let people pay for content within one single platform (videos, blog posts, memes) 

• Quality maintenance through verification badges/rewards

Introducing Farcaster

The good news is that we’ve gotten a recent taster of decentralised social media. Farcaster is the latest— Twitter-esque — decentralised social platform launched by Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan (ex-Coinbase).

The platform has seen immense growth of DAU over the past few days, thanks to their launch of “frames”. To read up on frames, check out “Framing the Future of the Internet” by Packy McCormick.

For a more general deep dive into Farcaster, I recommend this post by Zeneca. 

Why I love it

Here’s why I’ve been glued to Warpcast (by Farcaster) for the past few days:

• Genuine excitement for people to do well

• Authentic, kind communities

• A bunch of friendly future optimists

• Earned my first payments for posts

• Great user experience (this is rare in crypto/web3)

Why I am optimistic

Farcaster is very smart about rewarding good user behaviour. This activity tracker lets users know exactly what to do to become ‘verified’. This means the overall quality of content is maintained, making for a great user experience.

What’s next + takeaways

Soon enough, creators hopefully won’t have to settle for imperfect monetisation systems. It’ll be somewhat of a learning curve to find out what and how to monetise.

All I know is that I love where this is going.

Join me on Farcaster, I host the /growth marketing channel and post daily :) 

See you there.

If you’re new here, it’s lovely to have you. By subscribing, you can expect the occasional post on marketing, growth, buyer psychology, and philosophy.

Subscribe now

For more daily updates, memes, and posts, follow me on LinkedIn.

A few weeks ago, my Dad called me. We chatted for a few minutes. Then, he mentioned that the price of BTC had taken an upturn.

“It’s at 38,000!!”, he exclaimed.

The news has reached my Dad. The secret is officially out, boys and girls…

Crypto is having another revival. 

Just over a year ago, I did an audit of the strengths and weaknesses of crypto marketing. It was right after the news of FTX broke. The market outlook was grim. My goal, at the time, was to offer some friendly advice and a heads-up to founders out there.

I’ve made a few updates and additions, but I feel the advice still rings true.

Maybe even more so in good times.

Let’s dive into some of crypto’s unfair advantages when it comes to marketing and growth. After that, we'll tackle how to avoid falling for common pitfalls.

The great of web3 marketing

Web3 and crypto projects boast several advantages when it comes to growth and marketing:

➡️ Nature of the technology :: incentives and rewards are built into the very fabric of blockchain tech.

➡️ Appealing worldview :: concepts like transparency and community involvement are inherently attractive.

➡️ Ecosystem talent :: lots of talented individuals that came from web2

From my experiences working with clients like Ryder and investing in crypto myself, here are three key competitive advantages in crypto marketing:

1 — Use of incentives to boost acquisitions 

Token-powered communities use incentives to encourage participation. New joiners, especially those contributing to network growth, are rewarded with tokens. Or at the very least, a promise to be rewarded in the future (i.e. airdrops). 

These tokens symbolise ownership or governance rights. 

The earlier a person finds a new coin or project, the more incentivised they are to tell everyone about it. Interest in the project equals success for a project they have a stake in.  

The acquisition system is simple: offer value for joining (token) > new person joins > incentivised to invite others > community grows

Using rewards to get new users this early-on is an acquisition dream 😍

2 — A strong, shared worldview

The next distinctive feature for web3 communities is a shared vision of the future. Blockchain enthusiasts are united around values like decentralisation, fairness, and ownership. 

To outsiders it seems they have reached cult-like levels. 

But that is exactly what you’d want as a brand. One of the most important growth principles for brands is to have a clear worldview. 

The underlying ‘why’ of their product. Connecting early-on with people over shared values can result in higher acquisition and activation rates. 

3 — An eye for great branding

With an influx of top talent from web2, web3 benefits from seasoned expertise in design and branding.  This is the same talent that has spent a lot of time building some of the most well-known, innovative tech companies. 

We can clearly see the remains of their past lives. 

Including the special attention spent on design and branding. Brands the likes of Poolsuite (see exclusive perks) know the importance of a trust-worthy, yet sexy brand. 

The threats to web3 marketing in 2024

Once the market gains in traction again, much of our critical thinking seems to go out the door. Let me be the voice of reason, your trusted marketing friend.

Here are some of the key pitfalls to watch out for in crypto marketing:

1 — Positioning beyond snake oil and shitcoins 

As of late 2023, we’ve witnessed crypto's dramatic highs and lows. To avoid repeating mistakes of the past, my most important warning to founders and marketers in crypto is: 

No matter the market dynamics, every company should spend time clearly defining the problem they want to solve. Here is what any successful product marketing strategy needs: 

1. An actual product (lol) 

2. Understanding buyer’s pain points 

3. Explain how you address those pain points

2 — Keep it simple, stupid 

We saw it with crypto and we’re seeing it with AI, too….

Messaging is too complex and borders on the esoteric. 

We simply cannot assume that our first-time website visitors understand concepts on-ramp, decentralised, or layer-1. Our early adopters might get it, but there's real value in breaking these concepts down further.

You’ll reach bigger audiences and make blockchain a more accessible technology. Crucial for wider adoption and acceptance.

➡️ See what I mean in practice. In this post, I break down and improve AI startup headlines. 

3 — Love the problem, not the chain   

As of December 2023, there are over 1000 blockchains. 

They all claim to solve different problems. 

But do they really? 

Although this isn’t a problem unique to crypto, there is a plague of founders in love with their product. There are tons of companies over-fitting blockchain as a solution to pretty much any problem. 

To reach product-market fit, we need to focus on solving real-world problems. Otherwise, your company’s days will be counted by the end of the next bull run. 

4 — “A little bit of Meta in my life”

The web3 movement was born as a reaction to the over-centralisation of web2.

“Advertisers like Meta, Google, and even Twitter became too powerful”, it’s been said. It would only be fair for advertisers to pay users for using their data to run ads. 

Elon Musk's recent confrontation with advertisers is akin to the crypto community’s aversion to centralised, web2 platforms. However, dismissing traditional digital marketing platforms could be counterproductive. 

The challenge is to find alternative channels or strike a balance.

5 — Long-term acquisition 

While incentives work well for initial traction, they aren’t a sustainable growth strategy. 

Plenty of crypto projects struggle with steady acquisition and retention.

Crypto projects need to diversify their acquisition strategies and invest in retention and brand reliability, especially given the market's volatility.

Some strategies include:

• product-led growth, referrals, paid ads, sales

• (over-)investing in branding from the start

• optimising activation and engagement metrics over time

If you liked this, feel free to share and subscribe. I’ll be forever grateful. No tokens available for early support ;)

Subscribe now

Growing up comfortably means you don’t have a right to be “weird” around money. After all, you never had anything to complain about.

I grew up very comfortably on my dad’s side of the family. I always knew there’d be Christmas gifts, good schools, warm food on the table, and new clothes every season.

Despite this, my family was torn apart over money.

There was fighting over money; lying, scheming, cheating. Money acted as a soothing balm for emotional wounds and blatant neglect. Constantly spending when we had money, longing for it when we didn’t. It was used to buy back time spent apart from our parents. More often than not, it replaced the simple act of saying “sorry”.

This is my money story.

Today, I know exactly how it has shaped me. I overspend, I impulse spend, I long for material things I can’t afford. I panic when I don’t have anything saved. Ironic, because I am unable to save it.

We all grow up with our own money story. Have you ever wondered how your story reads?

• Maybe your parents grew up with very little and passed on a scarcity mindset. Even if it was no longer necessary. Resulting in your money anxiety and being afraid to spend money.

• Maybe one parent disagreed with the spending habits of the other. Leading to hidden spending and being forced to keep secrets from one parent.

• Maybe your parents spent everything they had on status items to fit in. Leaving very little for things you value as a child (school trips, nice food, activities).

• Maybe you saw one parent get the worse end of the stick during a divorce. Leaving you angry and confused about your relationships.

It’s time to go beyond “Oh, I had nothing to complain about”.

This isn’t about complaining or wishing you had more. We cannot turn back time. Simply ask yourself, can you confidently say you have a healthy relationship with money, status, and spending today?

If not, I encourage you to investigate the money story that has shaped you.

I did in-depth interviews with over 15 people about their money stories. Even among my own friends, there were stories I never expected to hear. For more on this, check out this read by The New York Times on “financial trauma”.