Co-Founder & M.D @ Louder.Online

As a businessman,  entrepreneur, and author, I've spent 16 years reshaping the landscape of our industry. 

Co-founding Louder.Online 16 years ago was the beginning of a journey that has led to global recognition, transformative partnerships, and multiple successful ventures.

Some of my journey's highlights include:

→ Co-authored the book "Faster, Smarter, Louder"
→ Consulted for Fortune 100 clients including Salesforce, Intel, IBM, Coca-Cola, and Target
→ Authored over 1,000 articles for major publications like Forbes, HubSpot, and Entrepreneur
→ Recognized as a thought leader by Content Marketing Institute and Search Engine Journal
→ Delivered speeches across the US, UK, Asia, and Australia

As a serial entrepreneur, I've:

→ Co-founded Louder.Online, recognized among the top 25 Martech Companies in Asia-Pacific
→ Started multiple businesses across various industries
→ Launched an M&A education business focused on small business acquisitions
→ Developed expertise in multi-channel marketing, SEO, PPC, CRO, and content marketing

My work has garnered attention from prestigious media outlets:

→ Featured in The Huffington Post, Forbes, and the Sydney Morning Herald
→ Regular contributor to HubSpot, Entrepreneur, and Fortune
→ Guest on popular podcasts like Mixergy and Entrepreneur on Fire

My approach goes beyond traditional marketing. I create actionable, thoughtful strategies that not only deliver new customers but build lasting brand relationships. 

If you're looking to revolutionize your digital presence, explore business acquisition opportunities, or drive your brand into the future, let's connect.

Aaron Agius

I’ve watched outdated SEO strategies die in real time.

The digital graveyard is full of businesses that thought lazy, generic SEO could win.

90% of “professionals” are still playing that losing game.

Do you honestly think you’re different?

Most still build SEO on wishful thinking:
➔ Pick random keywords
➔ Stuff them into useless content
➔ Chase backlinks like desperate attention-seekers

That’s exactly how Strategy B self-destructed.

Here’s how you actually dominate SEO today, and what Strategy A did:

Content & Intent
➔ Educational content solving real market pain points
➔ Surgical alignment with sector-specific search intent

Optimization & Testing
➔ Real-time, data-driven adaptation—not set-and-forget
➔ Technical excellence: site speed, mobile-first, UX
➔ A/B testing like a sniper, not spray-and-pray

Metrics & Authority
➔ Focus on real metrics: traffic, conversions, revenue
➔ Targeted, high-authority links earned intelligently

I use nothing except what delivers measurable, aggressive results.

Strategy A didn’t just beat Strategy B—it obliterated it: 4.2x more traffic, more revenue, more engagement.

Why? It was engineered to annihilate inferiority.

Without precision, relevance, and data, you’re irrelevant.

Your competitors who do invest in these will outpace, out-earn, and erase you.

Strong CTAs help—but strong brands are better.

Make people WANT to buy from you.

Don’t force them.

If your SEO is still on autopilot, you’re not just falling behind—you’re already buried.

The fastest way to kill an agency isn’t bad SEO; it’s hiring people who ‘know SEO.’

Join the top 1% of agency leaders by facing this truth:
Your obsession with “SEO experience” is suffocating your future.

Most agencies cling to experience like a life raft.

They treat it as gospel.

A shortcut to credibility.

But experience has quietly become a straitjacket.

The harder you demand it, the more you guarantee stagnation.

Ask yourself who’s really moving your agency forward: rule-followers, or rule-breakers?

I’ve watched agencies collapse under the weight of “proven” tactics and “seasoned” hires.

Creativity didn’t die.

It was choked out by predictable resumes and recycled solutions.

SEO innovation has never come from playing by the book.

Yet agencies keep hiring carbon copies of their competitors.

That isn’t strategy—it’s delusion.

Here’s the reality:

Experience doesn’t guarantee relevance.

It creates echo chambers.

It filters out the renegades: the ones bold enough to ask, “Why are we still doing this?”

SEO today doesn’t reward mastery of 2012 tactics.

It rewards people who see new patterns and act before consensus forms.

The agencies leading this industry aren’t run by veterans clutching dusty playbooks.

They’re driven by talent with audacity, curiosity, and vision.

This isn’t an argument for ignorance.

Technical skill matters, but only as a foundation.

Without creativity layered on top, it’s useless.

Hire safe, and you’ll rank safe.

And safe is invisible.

Keep demanding “SEO experience required,” and you’ll keep getting substandard work. 

Interchangeable campaigns. Predictable outcomes. Slow decline.

If you want to win, hire people who challenge you.

Who ask better questions instead of reciting old answers.

Break your addiction to experience as a proxy for value, or accept average results.

Because the future belongs to agencies willing to reject the default.

Your move.

Why 'SEO Experience Required' Is Killing Agency Innovation

You think office perks keep talent loyal?

Try locking a strong engineer into an outdated tech stack, then watch how fast the kombucha bar stops mattering.

The modern workplace does not lose top performers because snacks are poorly picked.

It loses them because leaders micromanage tools instead of trusting professionals.

Read that again.

How most teams think retention works:
➔ Free lunches and unlimited coffee
➔ Nap pods and ping-pong tables
➔ Trendy offices with beanbags

How retention actually works:
➔ Real autonomy to choose, test, and deploy the right technology
➔ Zero tolerance for legacy systems that choke creativity
➔ Trust in the people closest to the work to define what drives results

Ask your best developer what matters more: her keyboard or the pizza in the breakroom.

If she’s any good, she’ll dismiss the perks and ask for freedom to use the right tools.

Here’s what tech stack autonomy delivers:
➔ Teams focused on outcomes, not optics
➔ Faster cycles without friction from outdated software
➔ A culture that attracts serious talent
➔ Skill growth that compounds through real problem-solving

You don’t see elite companies leading with office perks.

You see them winning because they invest in adaptable tech and let experts decide what works.

Retention is not about dopamine hits from free stuff.

It’s about respecting intelligence.

Perks often mask deeper dysfunction.

Rigid tools signal control, not stability.

Top performers want environments where they can break, rebuild, and improve their own stack.

Anything less tells them they will be more valuable somewhere else.

If perks are still your retention strategy, competitors are already recruiting your team.

Strong CTAs matter.

But strong brands matter more.

Make people want to work for you.

Don’t try to trap them.

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Why Tech Stack Freedom Matters More Than Office Perks

I stopped solely chasing Google rankings years ago and scaled my businesses to seven figures while competitors stayed stuck on the keyword hamster wheel.

Most people still treat traditional SEO like a lifeline.

That’s why growth feels slow, visibility is inconsistent, and progress looks like motion without momentum.

The playbook is outdated, even if it’s familiar.

My domination strategy:
➔ Eliminate dependency on Google
➔ Distribute hyper-targeted content across syndication, affiliates, and dark social
➔ Automate omnipresence so my audience can’t avoid the message

Too aggressive? That’s usually what unqualified marketers say before irrelevance catches up.

Week to week, I’m outpacing competitors by:
➔ Building distribution networks that bypass search entirely
➔ Partnering with affiliates who reach audiences Google never will
➔ Seeding dark social with conversion-first assets that collapse the discovery cycle

Alongside that:
➔ I run automation pipelines that deploy content before rivals even react
➔ I choose syndication channels where brand control is absolute
➔ I use precision micro-distribution that bloated SaaS tools can’t replicate

What worked?

Killing SEO dependency.

No waiting. No link begging. No algorithm worship.

I move faster and command attention while others tweak metadata.

What doesn’t work?

Playing it safe: incremental keyword gains, endless dashboard watching, and hoping rankings turn into momentum.

Anyone still glued to Search Console is ignoring how fast this market moves.

This works because control beats compliance.

I refuse to let an algorithm designed to flatten ambition dictate my growth.

I build distribution that’s automated, precise, and relentless, so omnipresence is engineered, not earned.

Comfort kills scale.

If you want real growth, stop digging through SEO fossils and start building systems that can’t be throttled.

The future belongs to those who own distribution, not those waiting to be ranked.

Most digital marketing teams celebrated today are bloated relics, propped up by outdated thinking.

Everyone wants elite performance, yet almost no one wants to accept what it actually requires.

What I see with top enterprise clients is a very different model.

It is not stacked talent or big personalities.

It is precision, alignment, and results. Nothing else.

Here is where most digital teams fail.

They worship vanity metrics.

They stay busy with meetings, reports, and headcount growth that leads to stagnation.

Their structures mirror yesterday’s failures, not tomorrow’s wins.

They talk about analytics while guessing which levers matter.

Now compare that to what actually works.

I align marketing with sales, product, and customer success so no message conflicts.

Analytics should be foundational, not decorative. Data drives every assignment.

In addition:
➔ Every hire is intentional: there are no “nice-to-have” roles
➔ Roles are built for one clear outcome, not inflated resumes
➔ If a tool or automation does not drive progress, it is not purchased

What worked for me was relentless prioritization.

Teams must be built for impact, not appearance.

Trendy tools without measurable lift are wasted spend.

What never worked was growing teams for ego.

Chasing trends.

Separating marketing from sales and product.

If a team is not aligned around one strategy, one dataset, and one goal, it will fail.

Enterprise environments remove illusions fast.

Discipline and data decide everything. Everything else is noise.

The future belongs to leaders who build marketing teams as strategic weapons, not social clubs.

If you are still running a team built for 2016, the outcome is predictable.

You either define the next decade, or you get outperformed by it.

Watching enterprise websites bleed millions is like seeing a luxury yacht sink while the crew argues over who forgot to plug a hole.

Everyone gawks at digital “giants,” yet few have the guts to fix the mistakes draining revenue.

Right now, 83% of enterprise sites sabotage themselves—ignoring SEO audits and gifting revenue to competitors.

Tomorrow, those who embrace relentless auditing and optimization dominate.

Here’s how I approach it weekly:
➔ Full audits with Screaming Frog & Sitebulb—anything less is amateur hour
➔ Fix broken links, slow pages, outdated metadata before they drain revenue
➔ Mobile optimization checks—59% of search is mobile; ignoring it is malpractice

Beyond that:
➔ Page speed benchmarking—every second costs ~7% conversions
➔ Crawl & indexation analysis with GSC & Ahrefs
➔ Site architecture reviews—duplicate content, buried conversion paths, hidden opportunities

What works? Relentless, unsentimental audits.

What doesn’t? Overpaid agencies or “set-and-forget” in-house teams.

Complacency costs millions.

Why it works for me? Every missed audit is a personal attack on profit.

Numbers dip? I hold the process accountable, not Google.

The data doesn’t lie: 1 second of delay = 7% fewer conversions.

Mobile traffic dominates—fail there, and competitors feast.

No enterprise wins by accident.

The choice is clear:
➔ Audit, optimize, cash in
➔ Or watch market share vanish

Neglect is a choice.

Optimization is a weapon.

Budget won’t save broken processes.

Face the numbers. Confront reality. Do the work.

Your revenue depends on it.

Mistakes Enterprise Websites Should Watch Out For

Your “thought leadership” content isn’t building authority, it’s training your audience to scroll past.

I’ve seen too many enterprise marketing execs cling to their blogs like security blankets, while the audience moves on.

Your blog isn’t building authority.

It’s shouting into a void while people scroll, swipe, and click past.

Long articles, keyword stuffing, “thought leadership”: they’re mostly ignored.

Drop the delusion.

How most teams think engagement works in 2026:
➔ Four blog posts a week for “consistency”
➔ Endless SEO tweaks chasing shrinking search traffic
➔ Bloated articles that vanish after publishing

How engagement actually works:
➔ Data-driven, personalized content based on real audience signals
➔ Interactive video, audio, and immersive formats that stop scrolling
➔ Strategic distribution on channels people actually use

Reality check: over 50% of marketers report declining blog traffic.

Average attention? Less than 60 seconds.

Only 26% see ROI.

Meanwhile, audience-first content drives engagement and conversions up 200%+.

Blogging is the fax machine of marketing: familiar, expensive, ignored.

Every hour spent polishing posts is an hour not building experiences that actually connect.

Stop obsessing over calendars.

Start listening to data.

Build experiences, not posts.

Blogging was a tool.

Adaptive, audience-first content is your advantage.

If your strategy still revolves around publishing more words, you’ve already chosen mediocrity, while competitors build real relationships.

Why We Tell Our Clients to STOP Creating Blog Posts

Every SEO team has a budget and an outcome.

Here’s the truth: only one of these is truly yours.

Competitors can throw money at bloated agencies.

Fill seats with ineffective generalists.

Buy overpriced tools.

Boast about “full-service.”

But they can’t build surgical efficiency.

☑ Budgets Limit
Budgets come from profit constraints, not strategy or boldness.

☑ Outcomes Build Trust
Clients trust teams that deliver traffic, rankings, and revenue—on time, every time.

☑ Outcomes Differentiate
In a world of “big spend, minimal results,” outcomes set you apart.

Why outcomes matter more than budget:
➔ Showcase expertise
➔ Prove real impact
➔ Build credibility
➔ Attract results-focused clients
➔ Create loyalty through performance
➔ Fuel word-of-mouth with execution

Here’s how I focus on outcomes:

Team & Roles
➔ Hire a single full-time SEO lead for clarity, strategy, and cross-team alignment
➔ Use freelancers with deep expertise for high-impact work
➔ Demand role clarity—everyone owns a piece of the result

Tools & Processes
➔ Exploit only tools that matter: Ahrefs Lite, SEMrush Pro, GSC
➔ Cut “nice-to-have” software and vanity spends
➔ Enable cross-functional collaboration with devs, UX, content, and analytics

Learning & Measurement
➔ Rapidly upskill your team with free resources: Google SEO Starter Guide, Moz Academy
➔ Measure every KPI ruthlessly: rankings, organic sessions, revenue per page
➔ Reject the mindset that “budget = success”—brains, discipline, and adaptability drive results

Focusing on outcomes isn’t a tactic.

It’s the bedrock of a performance culture.

Lead with outcomes.

And watch market domination follow.

Building an SEO Team Without a Big Agency Budget

Stop fantasizing that clever slogans or bloated teams will propel you forward. Study the enterprises that win, then reengineer your marketing machinery with laser focus on efficiency and strategic thermonuclear power. Or, stick to your old ways and watch those quarterly reports slide deeper into shameful territory.

There is no magic formula, no shortcut, no fairy tale “hack” to building a world-class SEO team on a budget. There is only strategy, discipline, and the will to act while your competitors waste time and money.

It’s time for some honesty. You do not need a monstrous marketing budget or the razzle-dazzle of agency smoke and mirrors to build an SEO team that cr

Open article: Building an Elite SEO Team on a Budget: The Unforgiving Truth No Agency Will Tell You by Aaron Agius • 6 min read

Building an Elite SEO Team on a Budget: The Unforgiving Truth No Agency Will Tell You

If you want an agency that shapes tomorrow, recruit like your future depends on it—because it does.

Every time you hide behind “SEO experience required,” you’re lighting the funeral pyre for your own ambition. There will be no applause at the grave.

The Ruthless Truth About Innovation, Recruitment, and Survival in Modern Digital Marketing Let’s incinerate the industry’s most sacred cow right up fr

Open article: Is Your Obsession with “SEO Experience” Suffocating Your Agency’s Future? by Aaron Agius • 8 min read

Is Your Obsession with “SEO Experience” Suffocating Your Agency’s Future?

The benchmark for success is no longer innovation. It’s about acquiring, hacking, and out-optimizing every single move your competition makes—and then automating it so aggressively that human error and hesitation are eliminated.

Let me ask a question that will probably make you squirm: Just how naked are you, competitively speaking? I’m not talking about the LinkedIn vanity me

Open article: How Reverse Engineering Competitor Strategies Fuels Industry Leadership by Aaron Agius • 7 min read

How Reverse Engineering Competitor Strategies Fuels Industry Leadership

Empower your workforce to choose, adapt, and evolve their own tools, and you’ll lock in the best talent, outpace your industry, and shatter old benchmarks for innovation and growth. Stick to the myth of perks, and you'll wake up to a talent exodus and a stalled product roadmap.

Abandon everything you know about SEO. Engineer an underground content distribution system that guarantees visibility, authority, and conversion at scale. Traditionalists will be crushed. Only the relentless—the ones who dare to discard the outdated—will dominate.

Accept the harshest reality in digital marketing: traditional SEO is finished. Yes, you read that correctly. The endless grind of optimizing keywords,

Open article: From Zero to $1M: The Ruthless Content Distribution Blueprint That Annihilates Outdated SEO by Aaron Agius • 9 min read

From Zero to $1M: The Ruthless Content Distribution Blueprint That Annihilates Outdated SEO

It’s not too late to fix this. Shred your editorial calendar and interrogate your data. Ask your customers what they want—every quarter, every campaign, every channel. If your answer is “more blog posts,” you’re asking the wrong people, or you’re lying to yourself.

If you’re in the 83% still treating audits as an afterthought, just know this—the clock is counting down on your market share, your profitability, and, possibly, your job.

If you want to shift from bleeding revenue to dominating your sector, the path is simple and merciless: Audit. Fix. Audit again. Only the relentless survive. Only the disciplined thrive.

The $100 Million Blunder Sabotaging 83% of Big Brands Let’s destroy the myth right now: Enterprise organizations are not immune to catastrophic digita

Open article: Are Critical SEO Issues Costing Enterprise Websites Millions? by Aaron Agius • 9 min read

Are Critical SEO Issues Costing Enterprise Websites Millions?

If you still believe original ideas win markets, you’ve already lost.

The real power belongs to those ruthless enough to rip apart competitor strategies, reconstruct them with brutal efficiency, and then weaponize automation to dominate at scale.

The CEOs clinging to “innovation first” are simply donating market share to the cunning operators who treat competitor intelligence as the only path to victory.

Are you building your business on naive optimism or unforgiving reality?

Who wins the future: original “innovators,” or tacticians who dissect, replicate, and automate competitors until nothing is left to steal?

You can chase the ghost of “adequate SEO,” comfort yourself with pointless dashboards, and watch your competitors suffocate you in the SERPs.

Or you can build a program so empirically sound, so viciously focused, that 4.2x isn’t your ceiling—it’s your starting point. It’s not about working harder. It’s about being too precise, too ruthless, and too relentless for anyone else to keep up.

You want proof that most so-called “SEO experts” are nothing but glorified guessers? Keep reading. If you’re clinging to tired, generic strategies, yo

Open article: Why One SEO Strategy Outperformed Another by 4.2x (And Why Most Experts Never Will) by Aaron Agius • 8 min read

Why One SEO Strategy Outperformed Another by 4.2x (And Why Most Experts Never Will)

Jordan West

E-Com Investor & Podcast Host | Multiple Exits| Avid Golfer, Biker + Hiker | Dad Of 3 | CEO + CMO | Mastermind Host

My Journey 
When I was 23 I decided to buy a Taco Del Mar restaurant... I knew I had made a huge mistake at 2pm the first day when only 3 customers had walked in... (and two of them were my parents haha) 
For 5 years I worked hard to grow sales every way I could think of and in the end, tripled our revenue which still didn't seem to matter on the profit side. (I lost a lot of money 💰)

The one thing that I seemed to be the best at in the restaurant endeavor was marketing and getting people in the door. 

Fast forward to 2014 when my wonderful wife Carmen (definitely my better half) started a modest baby clothing line and was selling at craft markets. 

I asked if I could test running a few ads on Facebook... and the rest is history. I learned every up-and-coming strategy and tactic and helped grow the small start-up to a multi-million dollar company and still growing!

Since then we have acquired multiple DTC brands and have built an agency (upGrowth Commerce) to service our brands as well as others who are in a similar situation to us!

In 2019 we started the podcast "secrets to scaling your e-commerce brand" which is now in the top 50 business/marketing podcasts in multiple countries including Canada and the United States.

I love connecting with people, so please connect. (I do have a no a**holes policy though, so don't connect if that's you.) 

I talk all about scaling businesses using paid ads on “Secrets To Scaling Your E-Commerce Brand”.

Chief Executive Officer

If you’re on TikTok Shop and you don’t use Reacher you are playing on hard mode!! 

But first a story… 

Last month I was in Vegas for business

 Bora Mutluoğlu and Jerry Qian flew out separately from SD and SF just for the night. 

Took me out for dinner. 
Hung out all night. 
Just because. 

I am so proud to have been their advisor. 

They will surpass any business success I’ve ever had very shortly. 

This is what I live for. 

So back to Reacher 

They have built every single feature I have asked for to build creator communities on TikTok Shop and beyond for brands. 

They are the obvious outreach tool for every brand (and it’s not even close) 

If I were a competitor I would just quit tbh 😆🤷‍♂️

They are on another plane. 

This isn’t sponsored - except maybe a friendship sponsor lol! 

Anyway just wanted the world of LinkedIn to know how much I appreciate these guys! 

I will bet on whatever they do in the future.

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This is wild 👇🔥🔥
We have an internal channel at Social Commerce Club when new clients partner with us…

No word of a lie - that channel has been pinging at least 3-4x per week for the last couple of months.

Needless to say… we continue to hire 😆🤷‍♂️

This is super important for every single brand wanting to launch TikTok Shop  in 2026. 👇

If an agency tells you that you’ll be profitable in the first three months… 

RUN!!! 

Your goal in the first three months is…

1. Build the muscle 
2. Build a creator community 
3. Build momentum

That’s it! 

But… once you get momentum you’ll start seeing insane traction. 

And that’s when it gets fun! 

Thats what my team at Social Commerce Club loves for!!

2025 year in review (this will be juicy 😆🙌🏻) 
Highlights first (in order of importance) 👇

1. 4th baby arrived (me pictured trying to remember how to hold a new born ❤️) 

2. Acquired TUFF Media - unreal founder in Parker Kump and incredible team! Made Parker CEO (he’s a way better day to day operator than me)

3. Worked and scaled over 100 brands at Social Commerce Club - became one of the top 5 “gold status” TikTok Shop agencies in NA. 

We Should be the only platinum in Jan.

4. Founder/CEO Advising - worked one on one with 13 founders - mostly SAAS. 5 exits, 3 got into accelerators. (I’m waitlisting founders for this year btw - DM me if interested)

5. Acquired Roasberry to become Halo - the first omni channel decision engine for DTC brands (launching soon) 

6. Socials - over 10 million impressions between LinkedIn, X, YouTube etc 

7. Health (should have put this second but I’m typing and well…) 

Continued to not drink (highest leverage move and it’s not even close) 

Installed a “daily hike” into my work day - best new habit. 

Read/listened to over 50 books.

8. YouTube/podcasts - was only on 10 external podcasts (need to change that this year) 

Published 40 YouTube videos + 52 podcasts of Secrets To Scaling Your E-commerce Brand 

9. Friends (this should have been 3rd lol) 

Moved cuties 4 hours away and intentionally have made some amazing friendships even at 39! 

We’ve hosted at our house least 20 times since we’ve moved and made a lot of ribs and brisket!! 

Lowlights

1. Said yes too much that took away from my main goals.

2. Didn’t spend enough time one on one time with my kids. 

3. Worked too much on things that didn’t matter to ME. 

4. Made some poor cultural hiring decisions that I had to walk back (read fire) 🔥 

Ok that’s it! 

What was your 2025 highlight?

I’m going to be honest 😢
In Aug… we were churning a lot of clients and not hitting expectations…

September we made some Big personnel decisions and it changed everything!! (Not like things were terrible before) 

Seeing my Social Commerce Club team working at this level makes me realize that they ARE the number one world class team for TikTok shop IMO 

Oh also… Parker Kump taking over as CEO has helped too!! 😆🤷‍♂️

graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message

“How should I think about sampling on TikTok Shop?” 👇 
We get this question from brands at Social Commerce Club constantly…

So... Here’s the framework we use. (probably save this one) 🔥 

Step 1: Stop treating sampling like a checklist
It’s not…

It’s an investment decision!! 👏 

Step 2: Use metrics as inputs

Not gates.

Yes, we look at…

→ Recent GMV
→ Post rate
→ Content quality
→ TikTok signals

Step 3: Zoom out and get the full context

Creator-side questions: (here's where the gold is people!!)

→ Is their content good enough to sell anything
→ Do they post like it’s a job… or like it’s a hobby
→ How long have they been on the platform
→ Do they engage in the community
→ Is there an obvious use case for the product
→ Does the page feel like someone who “gets it”

Brand-side questions

→ What’s the goal (GMV max vs brand control - this is something we contantly need to think about with the types ad size of brands we work with at Social Commerce Club)
→ What’s the sampling budget + volume we aligned on
→ Do unit economics work (COGS, shipping, margin)
→ Do we have inventory to support this
→ Does the category fit their audience
→ How aggressive does the brand want to be

Step 4: Make the bet

Every product we send is an investment!!!
We place it where it has the highest chance of creating real value…

Now (performance)
Or later (relationship)

And if you’re unsure…

That’s normal.

Pull someone in.

Pressure test it!

I hope that helps... questions?

Last month... I found an INSANE stat about TikTok Shop creators that EVERY brand needs to understand before going HARD on the platform. 👇 

1. there are OVER 3.5 million creators signed up on tiktok shop

2. Here's the part that will blow your mind... 

Of those 3.5 million creators... 

less than 50K of them produce more than 1k of GMV (sales) a month. (thanks to Bora Mutluoğlu and Reacher for the numbers btw)

First... I have been saying this for the last 2 years. 

There are so few AMAZING creators. 

Second - your job as a brand is to find these creators and keep them happy and working for your brand. 

We've known this as the case at Social Commerce Club for the past 2 years and built an INSANELY high performing network. (that we plug new brands into from day 1) 

The next thought I have is around strategy if you can't get those creators to pay attention. 

This isn't something that I talk about that often TBH. 

BUILD YOUR BRAND CONTENT on your TikTok page 

Seriously. 

Get someone fulltime to crank out at least 10 videos a day. (stay away from fully AI btw - TikTok is deprioritizing that right now) 

Look at your competitors top performing content creators on @FastMoss and use those videos as inspo for your brand. 

Am I saying don't work with affilaites?? 

No not at all! 

Affilaites are so important to your overall strategy. 

What I AM SAYING is... 

Control what you can at first. 

And you can control your own brand content and how much you put out daily. 

So do that. 

Know a brand thinking of launching on TikTok Shop in 2026? 

Send them this post - it may help them understand the platform that much better!

THIS IS A JOB POST FOR Social Commerce Club 🔥 
The more TikTok Shop agencies appear on the scene... the more I realize that 99.9% of them just don't get it. (or the broader market)

This is a great opportunity for us at Social Commerce Club - but also really sucks for the broader DTC community trying to enter the channel! 

The ONLY THING I THINK ABOUT DAILY is on increasing capacity (because as you know... demand is not our problem! 

And to do that... we need people to join us that RAISE THE BAR (not just meet it which generally weeds out 99% of people) 

So... we are hiring for the role of "social commerce strategist" 

What is it? 

You work directly in between our brand partners and our creator community. 
You help BIG brands enter the social commerce world on Tiktok shop driving both massive AWARENESS but also massive amounts of net new customers and revenue. 

Who are you? 

your friends call you "tenancious" "can learn anything" "won't settle for good enough" "can take on any challenge" "methodical is getting results" 

What have you done in the past? 

Titles may have looked like "brand strategist" "growth strategists" "director of ecomm" etc. 

If that's you... I'm going to tag in Klaryssa Pangilinan, CPHR 

1. Connect with her. 
2. Tell her that Jordan West said you should message. 
3. Tell her why you would be a fit for Social Commerce Club
4. Let's goooooooo 

Also would love a share and tag anyone you know may be a fit (ps... the best usually already have a job)

What’s up with That smile? 
Well let me tell you… 👇

A few things 

1. Social Commerce Club is going to be the biggest TikTok Shop agency in NA this year 

2. I have an amazing leadership team and CEO at SCC 

3. I love doing what I do on a daily basis 

4. I get to work with some of the biggest brands in the world. 

5. I am launching the biggest disruptive tool for brands since iOS 14.5 

6. I love my life 

That’s why I’m smiling … but tbh I would be smiling if everything was in shambles too - it’s a skill 😆🤷‍♂️

I have a confession LinkedIn…
This time last year…

I hired…

A ghost writer! 😆😢🤞

And you know what? 

They wrote better than me. 

They got better engagement. 

They saved me time!! 

But you know what?? 

After 2 months… it felt kinda weird. 

It wasn’t me.

I missed the habit of writing every day. I felt less articulate. 

Same thing with experimenting with AI 🤖 content. 

Sure - it works ish - but it’s not me. 

And I LOVE articulating ideas. 

I had lost my voice. 

So I went back to writing daily and let me tell you… best decision ever!! 

It’s not for everyone - I get it. But it’s for me!! 

Anyone else gone through this??

TikTok shop growth is hard. I want to break down EXACTLY how to do it in 2026 for any brand.

Hot take for 2026 👇

AI is better than you at UGC 

But… I don’t think it matters. 

Why? 

It’s not real.

It may work for a short time… but in the end, humans want humans. 

We love watching each other struggle and overcome. 
 
The messiness - the pain. 

It’s built in. 

One of my biggest takes is that AI content will be completely deprioritized in 2026 - because people are spending less time online as a result. 

Thoughts?

🔥 2026 predictions (you may not want to read these if you don’t like change e-commerce brands)

1. AI UGC on social media will be almost completely deprioritized and companies that make AI UGC will struggle (plus there will be some big consumer lawsuits similar to to ADA level lawsuits IMO) 

Also as an aside AI written content here on LI will be deprioritized (we all hope lol) 😂 

2. 95% of enterprise brands (read household names… not DTC darlings though some may take it more seriously before it’s too late) will enter TikTok Shop in some form. 

This one is interesting because I obviously have a lot of insider knowledge at Social Commerce Club and it’s wild. 

3. The Ads that work on paid social will HAVE to be proven out on organic social first. Brands will return to organic first (again why I am obsessed with TTS) 

4. Organic Facebook reach is back baby!! Post at least 2 reels a day! 

5. MTA as a measurement system will die and more wholeistic measurements will take its place (read halo etc) 

6. Meta and TikTok will demand even more creative in their pursuit of personalized ads. (Hmmm where can a brand get thousands of videos to use across channels???) 

7. Agentic commerce will push 30% of referrals for big brands on DTC (get ready for the bots folks) 

8. Social Commerce Club will be the only platinum partner on TikTok Shop and triple in size this year and I AM here for it!! 

What did I miss??

BRANDS!!! DON'T GO ON TIKTOK SHOP! 
YES YOU HEARD ME RIGHT! 

Until you have this in place... (yes I hate the hook I just did too lol!) 

1. Your fulfillment needs to BE dialled. If you start out and don't have this (the most overlooked part of TT shop) dialed you will get penalized and in a HUGE WAY! 

Like one of my old mentors says "it's all in the set-up" 

Having your back-of-house operations right from day one...

shipping, returns, SLAs, and stock sync—is non-negotiable. 

TT Shop doesn’t care if you’re learning. 

Miss your fulfillment window? You’re getting flagged! 

2. Your listings need to sell WITHOUT a scroll.
 
Clear titles (keyword-optimized, benefit-led).
5+ high-res images.
500+ character descriptions that SELL.

This is your storefront. Optimize it like your life depends on it.

3. You need a bulletproof creator outreach + content system.
 
One-off creator outreach is NOT a strategy.
 
You need:

A CRM to manage collabs.

My number one recommendation (and it's not even close) is Reacher 
Automated follow-ups.
spark ads collection 
etc etc 

Ps - think minimum 200 samples a month for the first 3 months. 

Remember top TikTok Shop creators are the 80/20 of the 80/20!

3 things in life and business that matter WAY MORE than money 💰👇

1. Autonomy - I would take freedom over money basically any day - your time is so much more valuable than you treat it. 

2. Friendship - there’s a crazy stat about males in their 30s and the lack of friends most people have. 

I have felt this in the past but made a concerted effort to push against it! 

3. Who you work with (and why the pic of Parker Kump) 

At Social Commerce Club I have one person that reports to me - Parker. That’s it. 

And TBH he is above my level - pushes me daily and is just a blast to work with. 

I’ve had partners in the past that aren’t at the same level and it is painful. 

If that’s you and a partner - you need to have the hard conversation NOW - it doesn’t get better. ❤️‍🩹 

I will never again work with someone I don’t enjoy and isn’t at my level or above (that included advisory clients) 

Life is too short. 

Btw… do the above and you’ll probably have more than enough money 🤷‍♂️

Ok what’s your thing that’s more valuable than money?

Brands sleeping on TikTok Shop…
Here’s what you need to understand 👇 

1. This is a legitimate channel for legitimate brands. (we should know at Social Commerce Club)

2. 2 out of the top 3 products AOV is above $200 (so you can't see it's just for cheap junk) 

3. Social commerce is the future 

Live shopping 
Creator driven commerce 
Affiliate style commissions 

If you’re on the fence… 

This is your sign

A brand we work with had over 20k affiliate  videos in November alone 👇

There are levels to this stuff on TikTok Shop guys! 

My biggest concern is the lack of amazing agencies out there to fill the massive need. 

I am still wanting to launch a way to help agencies understand how to run this service - DM me if you’re interested or want to know more (also for all of you who have dmed me do it again to get to the top of my inbox lol)

Was off my phone for a week 
No LinkedIn 🔥🔥🔥
Had 37 DMs waiting for me…

3 were from people not pitching me and that I needed to respond to 

What has happened to LinkedIn??

Remember when Saratoga Spring Water Company went viral?? 

A creator posted a hilarious video about their morning routine and it ended with him dunking his face in this water 

They sold out everywhere. 

It’s just water. 

If they can do it… so can you 😆

Because most of you who follow me have great products that people love. 

But what’s the Easiest way to go viral Jordan?? 

Well TikTok Shop of course!! 

This is why I’m obsessed at Social Commerce Club and why the biggest brands in the world are entering the platform. 

Thoughts??

One of my next life goals is to open the Canadian YC - I already have the whole plan built out and it’s WILD 

Canadians are so underrated. 

Canada 🇨🇦 is so underrated

Co-founder at Crustdata (YC F24) | Real-time B2B data for AI Agents

The Canadian YC Mafia has raised more than $919.6M in total funding.

You don't need to move out of Canada to build the next big company.

These YC founders built companies from Canada that operate at a global level. They attracted top talent and sold into international markets without needing to relocate. Location is no longer a constraint. The companies coming out of Canada today prove that world-class outcomes can be built without leaving Canada for the Bay Area.

Using Crustdata’s People Search API and Funding API, we identified the 8 most funded Canadian YC companies with founders currently based in Canada:

SRTX (Makers of Sheertex) - $251M - Katherine Homuth (now at Oomira)
CoLab - $177M - Adam Keating, Jeremy Andrews
Ready Education (Acq. by Collabco) - $162M - Danial Jameel, Alice Dinu, James Dang (now at Saris AI) 
Vidyard - $90.8M - Michael Litt Devon Galloway
Validere - $66.5M - Nouman Ahmad, Ian Burgess
Nomic Bio - $59.2M - Milad Dagher, Jeff Munzar, Arya Tavakoli
Fiix - $57.5M - Khallil Mangalji, Zain Manji, Arif Bhanji (now at Lazer Technologies)
Mino Games - $55.6M - Sasha MacKinnon

Did we miss anyone who should be part of the Canadian YC Mafia?

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Aaron Agius

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