American entrepreneur and business investor, with 12 years+ of experience in starting, scaling, buying, and selling 7 and 8 figure Ecomm Brands and Agencies. 

According to my wife and daughter, I'm also "the best daddy."

I grew up with humble roots in Orlando, FL, and through a work ethic I am incredibly proud of, I've quickly grown to be one of the most respected names in the Digital Marketing Agency space.

I'm currently the Founder of Agency Operators: Level Up, which helps ecomm & digital marketing agency owners go from $1M/yr > $5M/yr without being the main bottleneck.

Previously, I was:

Founder of Family Gifts Co., a multi-8 figure DTC E-commerce brand.

Co-Founder of WKND Investments, a company dedicated to investing in the best $5-$30m/yr USA based DTC e-commerce brands.

Founder of Vatizam, a marketing consulting agency that scales Brands to 7 and 8 figures through funnel optimization & paid traffic.

Kyle Hunt

I've onboarded 500+ clients across multiple 8-figure agencies.

The difference between 4% churn and 40% churn?

Your first 14 days.

Most agency owners treat onboarding like paperwork.

Send a form. Schedule a call. Hope for the best.

Then wonder why clients are frustrated by month 2.

Here's what I see at agencies stuck under $150k/mo:

→ No clear handoff from sales to delivery
→ Clients asking the same questions repeatedly
→ Week 1 chaos that sets the wrong tone
→ Pod leads scrambling without context
→ Founders still CC'd on every email

I ran ops for an agency that onboarded clients in under 24 hours with zero founder involvement.

So I documented the exact checklist we used.

Inside the $1M Agency Client Onboarding Checklist:

→ Day-by-day timeline from signed contract to launch
→ The 5 questions your intake form must ask
→ Handoff template from sales to pod lead
→ Kick-off call agenda that aligns expectations
→ Week 1-4 communication cadence framework
→ Slack channel setup that eliminates noise

This is the same system that helped agencies:

✅ Cut revision requests by 50%
✅ Remove founders from delivery in 90 days
✅ Retain clients 3x longer than industry average

If your onboarding is costing you clients and sanity - this fixes it.

Want the complete checklist?

1. Connect with me
2. Comment "ONBOARD"

I'll send it directly to your DMs.

PS - Your onboarding sets the ceiling for everything else. Fix this first.

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Want me to install this in your agency? Let's talk: https://calendly.com/kyle-agencyoperators/45-min-demo

8-Figure Agency COO | Fractional COO | Helping Ecomm & Digital Marketing Agency Owners Build $5M/yr Self-Managing Profit Machines | Proud Girl Dad | 7-Figure Agency Exit

I'm an ex-8-figure agency COO.

STOP thinking client churn is a sales problem.

It's an onboarding problem.

Most agencies don't lose clients because results are bad.

They lose them because expectations were never set correctly in the first 30 days.

If onboarding is sloppy, everything downstream breaks.

The difference between being stuck at $100k/mo and scaling past $500k isn't more leads.

It's a bulletproof onboarding system.

I'm giving away my complete $500k/mo Agency Client Onboarding Playbook.

This is the exact system we used to turn new clients into long-term retainers:
→ Expectation-lock onboarding sequence (what you promise vs what you deliver)
→ Day 1-30 client roadmap that prevents early churn
→ Kickoff call agenda that eliminates "that's not what we expected"
→ Scope boundary rules clients actually respect
→ SLA & communication framework that protects your team
→ Early-warning signals that flag bad-fit clients fast

This isn't theory.

It's the same onboarding playbook I install when agencies want to scale without replacing clients every month.

Want the $500k/mo Agency Onboarding Playbook?
Connect with me
Comment ONBOARD

I'll send it directly.

PS - Early comments get priority access.

I've modeled agency team structures from $35k/mo to $350k/mo.

Most agency owners hire at the wrong time.

They either wait too long and burn out their team.

Or hire too early and watch their margins collapse.

The real issue? No one knows their actual capacity.

I built a financial model that shows exactly when to hire - down to the dollar.

It maps out:

→ What 60%, 80%, and 100% capacity looks like for your pod
→ The exact revenue threshold that justifies your next hire
→ How pod lead costs change your margins at each stage
→ Gross profit at different client loads (so you stop guessing)
→ The capacity multiplier effect when you add management

This isn't theory.

This is the same model I used to scale an agency to 8-figures while maintaining 40%+ margins.

Without it, you're flying blind on your biggest expense - people.

With it, you know:

✅ Exactly when your current team maxes out
✅ What revenue you need before the next hire
✅ How to grow without destroying profitability

Want the $1M Agency Capacity Calculator?

1. Connect with me
2. Comment "CAPACITY"

I'll send it directly.

PS - This is the model most agencies don't build until they're already bleeding cash.

89% of agencies lose clients because of BAD communication.

11% of agencies do this differently:

Clients say "just one quick thing" at 11 PM.

And your team scrambles to respond.

Here's the truth: Bad client communication kills profit margins.

When everything is "urgent," nothing gets done right.

I've worked with 50+ agencies that struggled with this exact problem.

Endless Slack pings. Scope creep disguised as "quick questions." 

Team burnout from constant firefighting.

So I built the Client Communication SLA Playbook.

This is the exact system that helps agencies: 

→ Set crystal-clear expectations from day 1 
→ Protect team time without losing clients 
→ Define what "urgent" actually means 
→ Handle escalations without founder involvement

Inside you'll get:

SLA Menu by client tier (what you promise vs what you deliver)
Slack rules that actually work (channels, tagging, office hours)
Escalation ladder (pod lead → specialist → founder)
Response templates for setting boundaries professionally
Onboarding language that "locks expectations" immediately
1-page "How to Work With Us" template for clients

Copy/paste ready. Plug it into your onboarding tomorrow.

One agency used this and cut after-hours requests by 70% in 30 days.

Another doubled their team's billable hours because they stopped chasing "quick questions."
Want the full playbook?

Connect with me
Comment "SLA"

I'll send it over.

I've helped 100+ agencies rebuild their operations from scratch.

Most owners at $50-150k/mo are trapped in the same cycle:

→ Every new client means more of YOUR time
→ Onboarding takes 2-3 weeks instead of 2-3 days
→ Deliverables slip because kickoffs aren't standardized
→ You're still the one answering every setup question

The problem isn't your team. It's your onboarding system.

When I was COO of an 8-figure agency, we cut onboarding time by 80% and removed founders from delivery completely.

I've now documented the exact 30-day reset I use with agencies stuck in this trap.

Inside The 30 Day Agency Reset:

→ Day-by-day implementation timeline (what to fix in what order)
→ Client kickoff template that eliminates back-and-forth
→ Handoff system from sales to delivery (no more dropped balls)
→ The 5 onboarding metrics that predict client success
→ Team accountability structure so you're not the backup

This same system has helped agencies:

✅ Onboard clients in under 24 hours
✅ Free up 15+ founder hours per week
✅ Cut first-60-day churn by half

If you're doing $50-150k/mo and still stuck in every client kickoff, this is your way out.

Want the complete 30 Day Agency Reset?

1. Connect with me
2. Comment "ONBOARD"

I'll send it directly to you.

PS - This is the same framework I install during my 16-week programs. Yours free.

I've worked with 40+ agencies doing $100k/month.

The ones stuck between $1-2M all have one thing in common:

They're running on a treadmill.

15% monthly churn means you're replacing your entire client base every 7 months.

That's not growth - that's survival mode.

Most agency owners are bleeding clients because:

→ No early warning system for at-risk accounts
→ Clients churning in months 4-12 (the mid-lifecycle death zone)
→ Zero visibility into satisfaction until the cancellation email hits
→ Onboarding that sets wrong expectations from day one

I ran ops for an 8-figure agency. We cut churn from 15% to under 3%.

Now I've documented the exact system in The 0 Churn Client Operations System.

Inside you'll find:

→ The 4 KPIs that predict churn 30 days before it happens
→ Mid-lifecycle rescue framework for months 4-12
→ Client health scoring template (know who's at risk today)
→ Onboarding sequence that sets expectations correctly
→ Monthly check-in cadence that catches problems early
→ The exact benchmarks

This system has helped agencies:

✅ Cut churn from 18% to 4% in two quarters
✅ Maintain 3-4 year average client retention
✅ Stop the revenue treadmill permanently

If you're tired of replacing clients faster than you can grow...

This is your fix.

Want The 0 Churn Client Operations System?

1. Connect with me
2. Comment "CHURN"

I'll send it directly.

PS - comment first for Priority Access.

I helped 3 Video Creative Agencies scale from $40k/mo to $100k-200k months in 12 months.

Here's what most creative video agencies get wrong:

They think more clients equals more revenue.

But without the right operations, more clients just means:

→ More revisions eating your margins
→ More editors you can't properly manage
→ More chaos you're personally putting out fires for
→ Revenue growing while profit stays flat

I've worked with 100+ agencies stuck in this exact trap.

The problem isn't your creative work.

It's your backend.

I just documented the exact operations system I've used to help creative video agencies hit $500k/mo while maintaining 40%+ margins.

Inside this Creative Video Agency Operations Blueprint:

→ Editor comp structure that scaled to 100+ edits per month profitably
→ The revision reduction framework that cut rework from 10% to under 3%
→ Fulfillment system that dropped lead time from 24 days to under 10
→ How to price UGC + media buying retainers at $5k+ minimum
→ Capacity framework so you know exactly when to hire your next editor

This isn't theory. This exact system has:

✅ Taken creative agencies from $40k to $200k/mo in 12 months
✅ Maintained 60%+ gross margins at scale
✅ Removed founders from day-to-day editing oversight

If you're a creative video agency doing $30k-200k/mo and want the operations to hit $500k/mo...

This is your shortcut.

1. Connect with me
2. Comment "CREATIVE"

I'll send you the full blueprint.

PS - Repost this for priority access

Bogdan grew 400% in 1 year. $40k/mo to $200k/mo.

Agency owners hit a wall when they try to scale.

They're crushing it with clients. Revenue is growing. Everything looks great from the outside.

But behind the scenes? It's chaos.

You're firefighting every day. Your team can't replicate your results. You're stuck doing everything yourself because "no one else can do it right.

I just sat down with Bogdan, co-founder of GrowthHub, to break down exactly how he went from overwhelmed founder to running a lean, profitable agency.

In this case study interview, we cover:

→ The bottleneck that was slowing his growth (hint: it wasn't what he thought) 
→ How he moved from doer to leader without burning out 
→ The exact operational shifts that 4'xed revenue in 12 months 
→ Why small tweaks in client acquisition created explosive growth 
→ How weekly reporting reduced stress and increased clarity 
→ The one thing he wishes he'd done sooner

This isn't some theoretical masterclass.

It's a real conversation with a real agency owner who fixed the mess behind the growth.

If you're scaling but feeling the operational pain, this is for you.

Want the full case study interview?
Connect with me
Comment "CASE"

I'll send you the video and a complete breakdown.

PS - This is the same playbook I've used across multiple agencies. Works every time.

I'm an ex-8-figure agency COO.

Your weekly leadership meeting is either your biggest leverage point or your biggest time waste.

Most agencies run meetings that go nowhere.

→ Hour-long status updates nobody needed
→ Same problems surface week after week
→ Leaders leave confused about priorities
→ Zero accountability between meetings
→ Decisions made but never executed

I've sat through hundreds of these meetings. Most are broken.

The fix isn't meeting less. It's meeting with structure.

After running leadership huddles across 100+ agencies, I documented the exact agenda that keeps meetings under 30 minutes and actually drives results.

Inside the Weekly Leadership Meeting Agenda:

→ The quick wins opener that puts leaders in decision-making mode
→ Who-what-when checklist that kills accountability gaps
→ Yesterday's targets review framework - learn why you missed, not just that you missed
→ The 1-minute rule for handling issues without derailing the meeting
→ Time tracking check-in that eliminates end-of-month surprises
→ Roadmap review structure that keeps priorities visible

This is the same meeting framework that helped agencies:

✅ Cut leadership meeting time by 50%
✅ Surface problems 30 days before they explode
✅ Get teams executing without constant follow-up

If your leadership meetings feel like a waste of time - they probably are.

Want the complete Weekly Leadership Meeting Agenda?

1. Connect with me
2. Comment "HUDDLE"

I'll send it directly to your DMs.

PS - This works whether you have 2 leaders or 20

Early in my Agency Owner days, I made the classic mistake. Client loved working with me, so when I handed them to a new strategist, I just... introduced them on a call.

"Hey, meet John. He's great. He'll be taking over your account."

The client smiled, said nice things, then slowly disengaged over the next 6 weeks.

The problem wasn't John. It was that John was a stranger who hadn't earned anything yet.

So I changed the process.

Now the new person works on the account for 2-3 weeks before the client knows they exist. They're running strategy, making optimizations, doing the actual work while I provide oversight.

The goal is simple: create a win. Increased spend, better ROAS, faster delivery. Something measurable.

Then the transition call sounds completely different:

"Hey, I want to introduce you to John. He's actually been the strategist on your account the last two weeks. You've seen the increase in spend and revenue during that time? That was John. I was just oversight, making sure he followed our process. As you can see, he did an excellent job."

Now John isn't a stranger. He's the person behind their recent results.

I also position the change as an upgrade. "We're moving you to a dedicated team structure. Same people working on your account every day. Faster delivery, deeper understanding of your business, one main point of contact."

People really respond to the word "dedicated."

I also tell them there might be some turbulence during the transition, but once it's set up, results will be better. I don't promise perfection. I promise improvement.

Pricing stays the same. Contract stays the same. Current work continues. The only thing changing is they're getting a more focused team.

That's the install. Takes about 3 weeks to do it right.

I've helped scale 3 agencies past $3M ARR.

Multi-year clients.

Stable MRR.

No churn panic.

STOP thinking retention is about "getting better results."

Most agencies don't lose clients because performance drops.

They lose them because nobody manages the relationship after onboarding.

The danger zone isn't month one.

It's months 4-12.

That's when:
Momentum fades
Expectations drift
Clients stop feeling progress
Churn emails come out of nowhere

I acquired and scaled an agency to 8-figures.

The difference between constantly replacing clients and compounding revenue wasn't more sales.

It was installing a retention system.

I'm giving away my complete $500k/mo Agency Client Retention Playbook.

This is the exact system we used to keep clients for years:
→ Client health scoring system (spot churn before it happens)
→ Monthly check-in cadence that prevents silent dissatisfaction
→ Mid-lifecycle reset call agenda (months 3-6)
→ "At-risk" save call framework that actually works
→ Expectation recalibration scripts when things drift
→ Rules for identifying bad-fit clients early

This isn't theory.

It's the same retention playbook I install when agencies say:

"We're signing clients... but we can't seem to keep them."

Want the $500k/mo Agency Client Retention Playbook?

Connect with me
Comment RETENTION

I'll send it directly.

PS - Early comments get priority access.

I've audited 100+ agencies between $1-3M.

90% have the same problem:

They're not broken. They're just unaudited.

Most agency owners at this level are drowning in operational chaos:

→ Chasing fires instead of building systems
→ No idea which metrics actually matter
→ Team accountability is a guessing game
→ Processes exist in your head, not on paper

The fix isn't working harder. It's knowing exactly where to look.

After 5 years as an 8-figure agency COO, I built a 90-day audit framework that identifies the gaps killing your profit and sanity.

Inside The 90-Day Ops Audit Checklist:

→ The 5 leading metrics that predict problems 30 days ahead
→ Team structure audit to find hidden capacity leaks
→ Client delivery scorecard (are you actually hitting targets?)
→ Weekly reporting cadence template - plug and play
→ The accountability framework that removes you from firefighting
→ Quick wins checklist to get 10+ hours back immediately

This exact process has helped agencies:

✅ Cut audit time from 15 hours to under 3
✅ Identify the same 5 problems hiding in plain sight
✅ Double EBITDA in 90 days by fixing what actually matters

If you're stuck between $1-3M and feel like you're working IN the business instead of ON it - this is your starting point.

Want the complete 90-Day Ops Audit Checklist?

1. Connect with me
2. Comment "AUDIT"

I'll send it directly to you.

PS - The problems at your stage are predictable. This checklist shows you exactly where to look first.

Worked with an agency doing $2M. The founder's Slack looked like a 911 dispatch center.

47 unread messages before 9am. Clients texting his personal cell. Team members DMing him questions their pod lead should've answered.

He thought he was being responsive. He was actually training everyone to never solve anything themselves.

When anyone can ping you directly, your org chart is just a suggestion.

So we changed three things.

His pod lead started owning Slack. Client questions go there first. Specialists only get tagged when it's actually technical.

He set response times and told clients what to expect. Top tier gets 2 hours. Everyone else gets 4. No response time means your real policy is "respond instantly to everything." 

His specialists stopped living in Slack. They check it twice a day. The rest of the time they do the work he actually sells.

Questions dropped. Fires stopped landing on his desk. His team started solving problems without asking permission.

Your pod lead should own client communication. Your specialists should stay focused. You should only see real emergencies.

3 words that destroy agency margins: 'Let me check.'

I talked to an agency owner last week who was frustrated his team couldn't answer client questions without looping him in.

Turns out his AMs were great communicators. Smooth on calls. Clients liked them.

But none of them actually understood the service.

So every technical question became a relay. Client asks. AM says "let me get back to you." AM pings the strategist. Strategist explains. AM translates it back. Something gets lost. Client follows up. Repeat.

He was paying for account managers but getting expensive messengers.

We restructured. Put a senior lead in the client-facing seat instead. Someone who could actually answer questions on the call.

Within two months, client calls got shorter. Follow-up threads dropped. And his team stopped pinging him for every scope clarification.

The agencies I work with that charge premium prices almost always have experts running client relationships. Not translators.

If you're hiring AMs, look for people who already understand the work. You can teach project management. Teaching deep expertise takes years.

Communicator-only AMs can work as a stopgap on small accounts. But once that pattern hits your core clients, you're quietly trading margin for convenience.

A $3,500/month hire just cost one agency $100,000.

I was on a call last week with a performance agency doing about $1.2M. They wanted to add GoHighLevel CRM integrations to pre-qualify leads before sending them to clients.

The math looked great on paper. $3,500/month for a specialist, margins still at 67%. Easy yes.

Then I started asking questions.

Every single client would need custom integrations into their existing CRM. Salesforce, HubSpot, whatever they're running. Data quality depends on sales reps correctly tagging leads. Training required. QA process needed. And if anything breaks, they're relying on outside experts to fix it.

"What happens if this automation breaks on your biggest client?"

That client was worth $100,000 a year. One failed automation. One screwed up lead flow. One frustrated client who decides they've had enough.

The spreadsheet modeled labor costs. It didn't model losing a flagship account.

I work with an agency that does CRM integrations and HubSpot work. Everything is custom. Everything. Per client. The productized agency they're trying to build doesn't exist with that service in the mix.

They can absolutely get to multiple 7-figures without this. Fewer things, done exceptionally well.

If you want to test something like this, do it the simplest way possible. A Typeform for lead scoring. One willing client. Prove the value before you build infrastructure.

You don't need more services to charge more. You need more value from what you already do.

Your strategist is on every client call. That's why your agency is stuck.

I see this constantly with agencies doing $1M-$3M.

The strategist is brilliant at strategy. So you put them on client calls "because they know the work best." Then they're in Slack answering questions. Then they're managing the team because "they understand what needs to happen."

Six months later, your $120K strategist is spending 60% of their time on work that doesn't require their expertise.

They're context-switching all day. Doing shallow work. Burning out. And you're overpaying for tasks that don't need their skill level.

I want my strategists doing strategy. Not sitting in Slack. Not on client calls. Not managing people.

That's what a pod lead is for.

The pod lead owns client communication, team management, delivery targets, and capacity. They run the pod like it's their own little business.

The strategist? They own briefs and overarching strategy. Period.

Here's the thing most agencies miss though...

This split only makes sense when strategy is a full-time job. In a creative agency where you're producing concepts, campaigns, and content constantly? Absolutely separate these roles.

But in a lead gen or LinkedIn agency where strategy might be 5-8 hours a week? Combining strategist and pod lead into one role is actually the right call.

The decision isn't about titles or what sounds right on an org chart. It's about actual hours and workload.

So before you restructure anything, audit this:

How many hours per week does your strategist actually spend on true strategy work?

If it's under 10 hours, maybe you combine roles. If it's 25+ hours, you need to protect that time and get someone else handling everything else.

Role clarity isn't an HR exercise. It's how you stop paying senior rates for junior work.

What percentage of your strategist's time is actually spent on strategy?

The highest-margin agency I've seen this year has a terrible secret:

3 pods. No team leader.

I was talking to a creative agency owner last week who just crossed six figures monthly for the first time.

When he showed me his numbers, I asked the obvious question: "How are your margins this high?"

His answer was honest.

"Because I'm the lead for all three pods."

The ideal structure is dead simple.

Each pod has three roles: creative strategist, editor, creative coordinator.

One graphic designer serves all three pods. One media buyer serves all three pods.

No middle management. No senior layers. No bloat.

Every new client plugged into the same structure. That's how you 7X without chaos.

But he also told me something else.

"The exchange for high margins is stress."

He's in every client call. He's the bottleneck on every decision. His team is capable, but they're structured to need him for everything.

This is the part nobody talks about when they brag about margins.

You delay the leader hire because the math looks better without it. And it does... on paper. But you're not accounting for the hidden cost of your own time and sanity.

Most owners look at a pod lead at $10K/month and think it's a margin killer. But when that pod lead removes 90% of client comms from your strategists and editors, capacity goes up. You can add 2-3 more clients at the same price point.

Suddenly the hire becomes profit-positive.

The other thing he nailed: one creative coordinator per pod.

He told me sharing creative coordinators across pods "becomes a constraint very quickly and increases lead time... things delay and billing gets messed up."

When a creative coordinator owns multiple pods, compensation gets blurry too. Performance-based pay stops making sense when nobody knows which pod drove results.

One creative coordinator per one pod = clean accountability.

If you're running pods without dedicated pod leads right now, you're not wrong. Just be honest about the tradeoff.

Your margins are high because you're cheap labor, not because your org chart is smart.

"I don't do meetings" is the fastest way to get cut from my hiring pipeline.

Last week I'm on a call with an agency owner evaluating a 37-year-old creative strategist. His ads were absolutely smashing it. His copy would blow most candidates out of the water.

Then the owner asks about daily syncs.

"That would be a dealbreaker for me."

His reasoning: Flow state disruption. Claims he loses 30-45 minutes after every meeting. "I'm a grown adult, I don't need check-ins." Prefers Slack-only. Says this is why senior talent leaves agencies.

Honestly, in most agencies he's probably right.

Most agency meetings are 30-45 minute founder monologues where you get told what to do and have zero ability to impact change. That's micromanagement. That's worth hating.

But a 5-15 minute daily huddle is completely different.

It's for surfacing problems early. Collaborating on solutions as a team. Redirecting resources before a small issue turns into a week-long fire. Process improvement that comes from the team, not dictated from the top.

Slack can check if tasks are done. It can't facilitate live problem-solving. It can't help junior team members get unstuck before they struggle alone for three days.

When someone refuses that... They're telling you they only want to do the craft part of the role. On their terms.

That makes them an excellent freelancer. It makes them a terrible team hire.

The owner's decision? "I don't think I'm going to carry on. I don't see him changing."

My response: "It seems like you really like the job as a freelancer. Maybe not being part of a team is what's for you."

Your best performer on paper can be your worst hire for culture. Skill doesn't override fit.

I've helped 40+ agencies transition to pods. The advice that works for most of them almost sank one last month.

$1.8M creative agency, solid team, ready for pods. My standard playbook says put your biggest problem clients in the first pod. Fix the chaos there, prove the model works, roll it out everywhere else.

I've given that advice dozens of times. It usually works.

But when I looked at their client roster, I stopped.

Two clients made up 55% of their revenue. Both were in the "problem client" bucket.

The framework I normally use, Fire-first, assumes your revenue is reasonably distributed. Lose one client during the transition is painful, but survivable. When your largest clients are dramatically larger than everyone else... it's def a big gamble.

There are really a few ways I've seen agencies approach this:

1. Fire First... biggest problem clients in the pod first. High impact, high risk.
2. Strongest Clients First... pilot with clients who already love you. Lower risk, slower relief.
3. Service Line Split... pods around services instead of client groups. Rarely works due to client crossover.
4. Single Pod + Flex... one creative pod plus a flex team for one-off projects. Short-term patch only.

For this agency, we went hybrid. Wait until a real pod lead is hired and validated. Start acting like pods internally without announcing anything to clients. Then launch with their strongest relationships first.

Their best clients already trust them. If there are bumps during transition, those clients give them grace. The enterprise accounts stay in the legacy structure until the model is bulletproof.

If your top two or three clients make up more than 40% of revenue, fire-first is probably the wrong call. Start with the clients who'll forgive you while you figure it out.

The first thing I do in every agency's ClickUp: delete the priority flags.

You'd think that makes prioritization harder. It does the opposite.

Week one, the system works. High priority means high priority.

Week three, everyone's marking their stuff as high priority because they want it done faster.

Week six, you have 47 "high priority" tasks and your team is back to Slacking you: "Hey, what should I actually work on first?"

The flag became meaningless. You're back to guessing.

I've seen this in agency after agency. The problem isn't that your team uses priority flags wrong. The problem is that priority flags exist.

What I do instead:

Pick ONE sorting rule. The entire team agrees to it. Everyone sorts their tasks the same way. No guessing, no flags.

Three rules that actually work:

1. Oldest first. Sort by created date, oldest to newest. Come in, work on whatever's been waiting longest. Simplest rule.

2. Biggest client first. Tag clients by tier. Work on Tier 1 clients first, then Tier 2, then Tier 3. Use this when you have high-revenue clients who genuinely need priority.

3. Send date first. For email or creative with hard deadlines. Sort by when it needs to go out, work on soonest sends first.

Then build views that auto-sort by your chosen rule. Each team member gets a custom view filtered to their assigned tasks, already sorted correctly.

They open ClickUp, the list is ordered, they work top to bottom. No meetings about what's priority. No Slack messages asking what to do next.

Your PM tool should sort the work. Not a random flag.

Ecom Growth Consultant | Follow to Unlock Your Ecom Growth

"𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘝𝘰𝘭𝘺𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳, 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩. 𝘔𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘦𝘵. 𝘎𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘺𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘥𝘢𝘺!"
Sky – Founder @ Medicinal Foods (Oct 2025)


🚀 We scale 7–8 figure DTC & Amazon brands on TikTok Shop to $100K+/month GMV.

Here’s how:

• End-to-end TikTok Shop management (listings, affiliates, creators, ads).
• Proven playbooks behind $2M+ GMV generated.
• Direct access to a top creator network driving millions in monthly sales.
• Performance-driven approach designed to turn TikTok Shop into a profit channel, not a gamble.

You get our A.C.E. Framework + the full ‘Anatomy of Success’ operating system.. the same system our creators used to generate €2M GMV... plus our internal tech stack worth €1,340/month, included for free. 


📈 If you’re a brand founder or a CMO tired of burning ad spend or seeing zero traction on TikTok Shop, this is where you flip it.

👉 DM me if you want TikTok Shop to be your next major revenue channel.

Saief Tissaoui

I spent 8 days building The Shortest Path to first $50K/month on TikTok Shop for DTC brands.

(most are doing it completely wrong)

Here's the brutal truth:

→ You're NOT getting bad ROI because your product sucks
→ You're NOT failing because "TikTok doesn't work for us"  
→ You're failing because you're treating it like Meta ads

TikTok Shop is NOT a marketing channel.
It's a revenue operating system.

And after working with & consutling dozen brands on TikTok Shop, I've identified the exact system that separates $0/month brands from $50K/month brands fast.

I just packaged the entire blueprint.

👉 30+ pages.  

Inside you'll get:

✓ The Product-Market Fit Check (7 questions to know if your product will work BEFORE wasting money)
✓ The Cold Start Setup
✓ The 6 Core Systems (Affiliate Magnet, Creator Retention, Creative Testing, Listing Conversion, GMV Max, Weekly Review)
✓ The 90-Day Roadmap
✓ The 7 Cold Start Killers (mistakes that stop brands from hitting $50K/month fast)

This is the system we've used to help brands go from:
→ "We tried TikTok and got burned" 
→ To a fast 5-figure months in 90 days

This blueprint will save you $10K-$50K in wasted learning.

Want it? 

Like + Comment "BLUEPRINT" 
and I'll send it to your inbox.

♻️ Repost this and get it same day

Add +$100K/mo via TikTok Shop | For 7-8 Figure DTC Brands

TikTok went down yesterday.

Over 36,000 users reported issues. 

Videos wouldn't load. 
Feeds froze. 
Login failures.

The timing is interesting
This occurred just 3 days after the January 22 ownership deal closed
where TikTok became majority American-owned

As of now, TikTok has not issued an official statement about the cause or provided enough details on the cause.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱:

Nothing really.

TikTok has had outages before. 
Every platform does.

This isn't the January 2025 ban situation. 
This is a technical glitch that got resolved within hours.

Based on my inbox reaction; many panicked. 
Maybe understandibly so, but here's what this reveals: 

Brands still don't fully trust TikTok as they think they do

If a 6-hour Meta Ads outage happened, no one would question their entire Meta strategy.

TikTok is heading toward +$23B in 2026. 
Short-term technical issues don't change that trajectory.

What are your thoughts?

TikTok Shop Profits are broken. 
Because most brands leave 10-20% on the table 
without even realizing it...

For a brand doing $100K/month, 
that's up to $240K leaked annually..

Those don't come from one big leak. 
Rather from 19 small ones stacking up

Most founders don't see it because they're obsessed with volume milestones.

Volume matters. 
Especially at the start.

But margin leaks compound silently.

So I built an 19-point audit to find every leak.

It covers:
✓ Creator economics
✓ Promotional stacking
✓ Product & bundling 
✓ Returns & customer experience 
✓ GMV Max economics 

Every leak includes:
☐ Checkbox to identify if you have it
→ Why it's costing you money
→ How to fix it

If you're scaling TikTok Shop and want to find where your profit is leaking:

Like + Comment "AUDIT" and I'll send it to your inbox.
♻️ Repost this to help another brand stop the bleed.

edencompany-eu

strategieinfo

volyat

tedxjendoubaville

I almost missed this update..

TikTok Shop quietly added a Logistics tab inside Seller Center.

No announcement.
Just… there.

At first glance, it looks harmless.
It’s not.

This is TikTok making one thing very clear:

Logistics is no longer a backend detail. 
It’s a growth lever.

What the new tab actually does:
• Centralizes TikTok Shipping, Seller Shipping, FBT
• Makes processing time and late shipments painfully visible
• Surfaces issues that directly impact shop health and distribution

Why this matters:

I keep seeing brands with:
→ decent content
→ active creators
→ and flat GMV

And the problem isn’t creative.

It’s ops.

Slow handling, messy shipping flows, unclear ownership.

TikTok doesn’t warn you loudly.
It just stops pushing your shop.

This update isn’t about convenience.
It’s about enforcement.

If you’re still treating TikTok Shop like “just another channel”, you’ll feel this one.

If you’re building it like an operating system, you’re ahead.

After managing TikTok Shops all year, I just finished:
The TikTok Shop 2026 | $100K/month Playbook 🗂️ 

13 pages, 6 sections
And you can have it for FREE.

Comment “2026” and I’ll send it to you.

It’s the exact rules we've used to:

→ reach +$100K/month with realistic expectations
→ set the proper growth systems with no chaos
→ choose the right launch path based on capital
→ Leverage GMV Max Ads for optimal results

+And helps you gain clarity on:

→ How to rate your product-platform fit
→ What progress should look like in 30 / 60 / 90 days
→ How much volume you actually need
→ When to push harder vs when to stay disciplined

This is the only resource you need to understand how TikTok Shop actually works in 2026.

Like + Comment “2026” and I’ll send it to you.

______________________________
♻️ Share this and you'll get the Playbook in the same day

TikTok Shop is not a marketing channel.

It's an entire revenue operating system.

And most brands are setting themselves up to fail because they don't understand this.

Here's what I see constantly:
Brands treat TikTok Shop like Meta Ads, or influencer marketing

→ "Let's throw some budget at it and see what happens"
→ "We'll test it like we test influencer campaigns"
→ "If it doesn't work in 60 days, we'll cut it"

That's not how TikTok Shop works.
TikTok Shop requires:

→ Tight logistics and fulfillment ops
→ Creator training and retention systems
→ Content velocity engines (100-200 videos/month minimum)
→ Listing-level conversion optimization
→ Affiliate economic modeling
→ Algorithmic patience through cold start
→ GMV Max budget allocation
→ Shop management infrastructure

It's not "post and pray."
It's not "let's go viral."
It's not influencer seeding.

It's ops-heavy, system-driven commerce.

If you're planning to "test" TikTok Shop in 2026, stop.

Either commit to building the full system 
or don't start at all.

Half-measures don't work here.

Most business problems aren't business problems.

They're personal problems disguised as strategy.

Early in my career, I wore perfectionism like a badge of honor.
- "I don't ship half-baked work."
- "Quality takes time."

Sounds reasonable, right?
Wrong.

Here's what I learned:
A painting painted over 100 days is usually worse than the 100th painting painted over 100 days.

Speed of execution compounds into quality. 
Not the other way around.

The brands that win aren't the ones with perfect strategies.
They're the ones that ship, learn, and iterate faster than everyone else.

I see founders stuck in "planning mode" for months.
But when I dig deeper, it's never about the plan.

→ "We need more research" = Fear of being wrong
→ "We're building the foundation" = Procrastination
→ "We want to launch perfectly" = Ego protection

Meanwhile, their competitors are three iterations ahead.

The moment I shifted from perfection to velocity, everything changed.

We scaled faster. 
We learned faster. 

Our quality improved because we had more reps.

Most business blocks aren't strategic. 
They're psychological.

If you're stuck right now, ask yourself:
"Is this actually a business problem, or is it a personal problem wearing a business mask?"

The answer will unlock everything.

Meta has more ads live on TikTok than on Meta
Let that sink in...

I was reading Jonathan Snow, DMD's 2026 predictions
And he noticed something that fascinated me 👇 

In the last 30 days, Meta pushed ~$3M in GMV on TikTok Shop
Quietly becoming a Top 50 seller 🏆 

Does Meta need TTS to sell its products?
Of course not. 

If Meta is committing resources there,
that tells you where leverage is forming.

This isn’t about Meta needing TikTok to sell hardware.
It’s about studying social commerce where it actually works.

Right now, TikTok Shop is the most advanced environment for:

- Affiliate-first distribution
- Content that directly converts to checkout
- Creator-driven GMV with fast feedback loops

Meta is inside the system, watching what scales.
And historically, that’s how they move.

Stories. Reels. Live. Threads.
Same pattern.

So yes => Shop is next.

Whether Meta rebuilds this natively or not is almost irrelevant.
The real signal is simpler:

=> Social commerce is getting bigger.
=> Affiliate distribution is becoming default.

If you still think TikTok Shop is a side channel, you’re already behind.


______________________
🚀 Follow for proven TikTok Shop growth systems
💬 DM me “SYSTEM” if you want clarity on your brand’s next step
🤝 Share this with a founder who’s serious about scaling

2025 wasn’t a “growth year” on LinkedIn for me.
Here are the numbers 👇

• Posts: 118
• Lead magnet posts: 16
resulted in:
• Impressions: 115,713
• Engagements: 4,508
• New followers: 1,492

That’s not what I expected.

But honestly? 
I didn’t 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 better results.

Not because the content was weak
the insights themselves are deep, tactical, and actually useful.

The real issue was distribution, intensity, and intentionality.

16 lead magnets across a full year isn’t serious.
Good content with weak distribution doesn’t compound 

Which is why 2026 looks different:

- More fire🔥lead magnets
- Stronger distribution loops
- Better & more intentional value sharing 

I'll reveal every best insights we have 
No gatekeeping.. 

Wanna help? 
I'd love your thought on👇

1. What would actually make this worth your attention in 2026?
2. Who are the players in this space you think I should follow and learn from?

I’m building this in public. Feedback matters.

Last month, we scaled a personal care product to $200K/month on TikTok Shop.
Here's what's surprising

$100k -> $200k is much easier than 
$0 -> $10k 
It's the famous cold start. 

Here's the exact 3-phase system we used 
to get this same brand out of the cold start
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
𝗣𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝟭: 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱
Creators are the core
But we don't start with it. 
We start with infrastructure.

→ Full listing optimization (title, images, bullets, offer structure) 
→ 10-15 core angles and hook variations 
→ Logistics locked in
→ CRM for creator management + a fire cohort
→ Decision framework for who gets samples

Most brands skip this. 
Then they wonder why their creators underperform.
You can't scale what isn't built to convert.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
𝗣𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝟮: 𝗩𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲
This is where most brands fail. 
They think 50-100 videos is "a lot."
It's not.
→ Reach 300-500 videos as fast as possible 
→ 2,000+ creator outreach per week 
→ 50-150 samples shipped monthly 
→ Early retention loops (get creators posting 2-6x, not just once) 
→ GMV Max activation once you hit 200 videos

TikTok's algorithm needs volume to learn. 
Without it, you're invisible.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
𝗣𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝟯: 𝗔𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗽
Now you have data. Now you scale what works.

→ Identify top 5-10 creators and double down 
→ Kill underperforming angles, clone winners 
→ Tighten affiliate commission structure 
→ Scale GMV Max on best-performing content 
→ Push to 500-1500 total videos live

This is where growth compounds.
You fully get out of the cold-start 
From there, it's a snowball
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Timeline to the first 5-figures?
Depends on your budget.

→ Massive budgets: 1 month 
→ Standard brands: 3 months 
→ Cash-limited brands: 4-6 months

The phases don't change. 
Only the speed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Most brands expect linear growth.
TikTok Shop is flat → noisy → steep.

If you understand that, you won't panic at Month 2.
You'll trust the system and let it compound.

I was going to share my thoughts on this news, but Ethan Kramer summarized it perfectly

Entrepreneur | Advisor | Fractional Growth Operator | Built & Exited Social Commerce Agency | $150M+ Driven Across TikTok Shop, Meta, Creator & Live Shopping Channels.

🚨 TikTok just made a move that even Amazon hasn’t dared to do and it's going to create ABSOLUTE CHAOS. 👀

But, it's a good thing long term. 🤷‍♂️

What is changing? TikTok is phasing out...

❌ The classic “Shopify + print labels all day in Seller Center” and manually fulfill model
❌ Drop shippers “Shopify + AliExpress” sellers
❌ Small and large 3PLs without approved WMS / ERP integrations

And pushing sellers into:

✅ Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT)
✅Approved, system-integrated fulfillment (WMS / ERP level control)

Why TikTok is doing this?  This isn’t about control for control’s sake.

TikTok is optimizing for three things Amazon doesn’t have to deal with:

1️⃣ Live shopping spikes
One live = hundreds of orders in minutes. Manual fulfillment breaks instantly.

2️⃣ Affiliate + creator chaos
Sudden virality destroys fulfillment SLAs if ops aren’t automated.

3️⃣ Trust at scale
Late scans, massive amounts of refunds, tons of disputes, missed deliveries, and fraud kill buyer confidence faster on TikTok than anywhere else.

So TikTok made a call:

“We don’t trust humans. We trust systems.”

That’s the shift.

Why this is actually GOOD long term

✔️ Faster delivery
✔️ Higher conversion
✔️ Better buyer trust
✔️ More predictable scale
✔️ Serious operators win

This move raises the floor of the marketplace which in a way is it's biggest strength but also it's biggest weakness. 

And yes — it also cuts out a massive chunk of low-quality sellers who were never built to scale. That’s not a bug. That’s the point.

IMPORTANT CONTEXT: I do not expect all categories are going to be treated equally. For example - likely exemptions:

✅ Collectibles
✅ Card breaking
✅ One-of-one items

I'm sure I'm missing more but you get the idea... 

Why these categories? 

❌ Can’t use FBT cleanly
❌ Require delayed or manual allocation
❌ Are already trust-driven

Do yourself a favor. Don't freak out. Plan. Expect: 

• Category-specific rules
• Stricter SLAs
• Less flexibility

 —but not a shutdown.

Will some sellers get exceptions? I bet they will... but only if they:

💪Have strong fulfillment performance
💪Hit SLAs consistently
💪 Are integrated at the system level
💪 Work with a reliable and trusted partner and have a dedicated rep supporting 
💪 Don’t rely on manual workflows

AKA Performance buys flexibility. Manual ops do not.

RECAP: Operational advantage is becoming a platform moat.

Brands that prepare now will dominate 2026.

Short-term pain. Long-term quality/trust. That’s the trade. 📈

Here's what most DTC brands still don't understand 
about the next 5 years of commerce:

Creators will be the most important part of your distribution stack.

TikTok Shop is where you build those relationships. 
Then scale them across your entire marketing mix.

The brands that move now lock in unfair advantages.

The shift is already happening.
Entertainment → discovery → checkout.
Creators are the new shelf.

And TikTok Shop is the testing ground before this model spreads everywhere.

We've spent 18 months building systems that find, activate, and retain the right creators at scale. 
The patterns are clear now.

But here's what keeps me up at night for brands still waiting:
The cost of delay compounds every month.
→ Creator relationships that deliver repeat content get more expensive to build from scratch
→ Review velocity and social proof gaps widen against competitors already live
→ On-platform search share locks in for early movers
→ Affiliate momentum becomes nearly impossible to manufacture from zero state

Early movers aren't just generating revenue. 
They're locking in distribution assets that late entrants will pay 3x for later.

2026 will be the inflection year for TikTok Shop.
Is your brand positioned to capture it?

$100K/month to $200K/month in 4 months.
With just 180 active creators.

Most brands do the same GMV with 400-600 creators.

Here's why that matters:
More creators = More samples = lower margins.
We play the volume game. But we do so efficiently.

The brand we worked with is in personal care. 
Competitive vertical. Crowded space.

But here's what we built:
→ A creator vetting system that filters for conversion, not reach
→ A retention engine that keeps performers posting 4-6x more 
→ A listing optimization loop that turns traffic into buyers
→ An offer that keep on raising AOV

The result?
→ 180 creators outperforming what most brands do with 500+
→ Lower samples bleed, higher net margin
→ Predictable, compounding growth

Most Brands brag about creator count.
We optimize for revenue per creator.

That's the difference between activity and efficiency.

If you're managing 300+ creators and still stuck at $100k/mo, it may not be a volume problem.

You have a system problem.

"𝘞𝘰𝘸, 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 100% 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩"
Said by a smart & really capable fellow operator in the space

Wanna access your TikTok Shop 2026 Playbook?

Read the post 👇

PS: will close it by the within short few days.

taplio

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