Matthew Hunt

Demandii - LinkedIn Demand Generation Agency

Demandii.com helps busy CEOs create all their content for LinkedIn from a monthly 1-hr interview so they can stay top of mind with their warm networks and become micro-celebrities in their niche. 

🚀 HOW WE DO IT:

Step 1: (CaaS - Content as a service)

We meet with the busy CEOs monthly and interview them.   We ONLY need them for 1 hour. 

This interview creates 20 snackable pieces of content:  video posts, text posts, image posts, etc. 

Then, we send that content to the CEO for approval and feedback. This process takes them about 30 minutes to put any final touches on it, so the voice is on point.  

Then, we schedule and post (do all the tedious stuff CEOs should never do) to ensure they are consistent on LinkedIn. 

Step 2: (LI ads)

Should our clients want more eyeballs on their content from their ICPs, we help them sponsor it.

This helps them be SEEN and become micro-celebrities in their niches. 

Step 3: (Leads)

Should our clients want more leads, we help them create a monthly LI event (long-form content) to get more inbound leads and build demand for their products/services. 

🤝 WHOM DO WE WORK WITH:

We work with anyone who sees LinkedIn as a core channel. We work directly with the CEO or founder. 

🌐 LEARN MORE:

Demandii.com

Founder

People love having me speak at their conferences, virtual events, and on their podcasts because I have a no-bullshit approach to helping others avoid the mistakes I've made over the years. 

Here's my journey:

2000-2007: Acting on stages worldwide, I needed to make more money, so I resorted to serving tables and door-to-door merchant account sales.  

2008: My gateway drug for self-improvement was discovered after joining a spammy multi-level marketing company. Read 100 self-improvement books to get my head out of my ass. I never made a dime with MLN. 

2009: I taught myself how to run ads on Google after reading Perry Marshalls's Definitive Guide to Google Adwords. Then, I became the top salesperson at the payment company because of search ads.

2010: Launched a YouTube channel and taught people how to do Local SEO, then had dozens of small businesses asking me to help. So, I launched my first marketing agency. 

2011-2014: I quickly scaled that agency to 7-figures but barely kept any money because I didn't know what a P/L sheet was.

2014: I merged those agencies with two other local marketing agencies because I struggled to run the business and needed help. I learned from my new partners that my biggest mistake was charging too little.

2015 - 2018: Helped scale Canada's fastest SEM and SEO marketing agency, servicing dozens of Fortune 500 companies. However, my journey got cut short due to partner conflicts, which triggered the shotgun clause.  

2019: I launched a cold outbound agency where we spammed people via email and with LinkedIn bots. I didn't love outbound. 

2020-2021: I tested a new service where I helped busy CEOs create all their LinkedIn content in 1-hour. People loved it! So, I killed the outbound agency and turned it into an LI demand gen agency.

2021-Present: Founder of Demandii.com - a LI demand generation agency.

Entrepreneur, Coach, & Speaker 

Automation Wolf

We started off as a spray-and-pray outbound agency where we automated cold email and cold DMs on LinkedIn; however, after a year of this, we discovered we hated it.  So we began testing, to help busy CEOs create all their snackable content for LinkedIn.  It worked!  We love it! Our clients loved it!  So we are now Demandii.com

Powered by Search

🏦 WHAT WE DO:

We helped enterprise companies make digital marketing work through a new method we called ‘The Intent Engine™’. 

🚀 HOW WE DO IT:

Most online marketers get it all wrong.  They are trying to do SEO, PPC, Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing, etc.. but that is not the problem.  The era of tactics is over. 

The real problem is, none of it works unless you understand what makes your ideal customer’s tick. 

We have created a new way to to do digital marketing that allows our clients to acquire customers at a profit faster. 

When you can acquire a customer faster and better then your competitors you win.  

🤝 WHOM DO WE WORK WITH:

We serve companies who already are heavily invested in digital marketing like SEO, Local SEO, PPC Ads (AdWords, Facebook), etc , but who have never quite found that perfect agency who can make it all work for them. 

📈 WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT: 

• We are performance-based marketing agency.  So when we WIN, you WIN!

• We ONLY have veterans marketers on our team, who love where they work.  Happy team = happy clients.  So you can have peace of mind you have hired the best talent. 

• We have proven systems and processes that have drive over a billion dollars in sales for our clients, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel & only invest in proven campaigns.

• We removed all the bloat and are agile so you can get the results you want faster without any red tape. 

✅ HOW IT WORKS: 

STEP 1 - It's easy! Contact us for a quick introduction call, where we can learn more about your marketing needs. 

STEP 2 - If we are a good fit, we’ll work collaboratively with you & your team to come up with the right strategy.  

STEP 3 - We will make sure everything is set up to run a marketing campaign that will please all levels of your team from marketing managers to the C-suite.

STEP 4 - We launch a successful marketing campaign & you become another one of our amazing case studies. 

🌐GET IN TOUCH:

www.poweredbysearch.com

CMO, VP of Sales & Partner

COO & Partner

Small Business Online Coach

🏦 WHAT WE DO:
We help small business gain visibility in Google search and Google Maps, so they can show up for search queries that drive immediate sales. 

🚀 HOW WE DO IT:
Most SMBs who are struggling are doing so because they haven’t focused on getting their business in front of hungry buyers who are on the search engines like Google looking to hire a company like theirs.  

We help SMBs gain that visibility they deserve quickly and with a great review reputation, so they can scale their businesses and worry more about delivering a great product/service vs worrying about where the next sale will come from. 

🤝 WHO DO WE WORK WITH:
We work with all different types of SMBs: Lawyers, Dentists, Chiropractors, Independent E-commerce Stores, Massage Therapists, Accountants, and much more!  

📈 WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT
• We are leading experts in Local SEO, so you can rank well on Google and Google Maps.
• We are experts with Google AdWords and Facebook Ads so we can immediately drive you more leads in as little as 48 hours. 
• We have created a new way to boost your positive reviews online, so more people will choose you over your competitors. 
• We know how to set up the analytics so you know exactly what is driving your sales and phones calls. 
• We guarantee our services and have no long-term contracts. If you don’t get more leads and sales we’ll refund you your money.

✅ HOW IT WORKS:

STEP 1 - It's easy! Contact us for a quick introduction call, where we can learn more about your marketing needs. 

STEP 2 - If we are a good fit, we’ll work collaboratively with you and your team to come up with the right SEM & SEO strategies.  

STEP 3 - We will make sure everything is set up to run a measurable and successful marketing campaign.

Canada Card Processing (Lead Gen)

This was my gateway drug into marketing.

I built a website to produce leads for my straight commission sales of selling merchant services.

I bought a book called The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords.

Taught myself PPC.
Taught myself SEO.
Taught myself how to build WordPress websites.

Then I got inbound leads for credit card processing.

I got 100s of leads per month.
Then would close them over the phone.

This got me out of door-to-door selling and launched my entrepreneurial journey.

Self Employed (Wantrepreur)

various film & theatre companies

Canadian theatre artist who performed various shows across the globe such as 'The Overcoat' produced by CanStage.

Actor

Amber Restaurant 

I served tables, bartended, and worked the door at a busy high-end nightclub in Yorkville, Toronto. Basically, I served rich and famous people drinks and apps, so I could float my theatre career.

Bartender

Merchant Services Companies 

Sold merchant services door-to-door on straight commission.  I ate what I hunted.

Door to Door Salesperson

I help busy B2B CEOs create all their snackable LinkedIn content from a 1-hour monthly interview. -> Demandii.com

I help busy B2B CEOs create ALL their snackable LinkedIn content from a monthly 1-hr interview each month because their biggest obstacle is time.

Once a CEO gets consistent with publishing daily helpful short-form content, the bi-product is:

- Stay top-of-mind with their warm network.
- Soft touches with their team, prospects, and clients. 
- Forces them to become a more effective communicator.
- Leads to speaking and new media opportunities like being featured on Podcasts and Virtual Summits.

Any time a founder can multiply themselves without taking up all their time is a HUGE WIN!

Personal branding on LinkedIn is an evergreen and compounding strategy that ALL B2B founders need to invest in.

I have battle-tested this process with over 150 CEOs.

It works.

We have the data to prove it.

We have driven over 30 million free impressions for our clients and taught them how to build demand for their services without being slimy or salesy.

See over 100 client testimonials and case studies here: https://www.demandii.com/case-studies

You can see my whole LinkedIn GTM strategy in this 12-minute video at Demandii.com

---

If you are interested in working with me, DM me on LinkedIn 

OR 

book time with me via Demandii.com

Demandii.com helps busy CEOs create all their content for LinkedIn in 1-2 hours per month so they can stay top of mind with their warm networks and become micro-celebrities in their niche. 

🚀 HOW WE DO IT:

We start with three 1-hr workshops to better understand your business and what makes your ICP tick. It's the foundation for creating compelling content.

Then, we meet with the busy CEOs monthly and interview them on a tool like Zoom.   We ONLY need them for 1 hour. 

This interview creates 20 snackable pieces of content:  video posts, text posts, image posts, etc. 

Then, we send that content to the CEO for approval and feedback. This process takes them about 30 minutes to put any final touches on it, so the voice is on point.  

Then, we schedule and post (do all the tedious stuff CEOs should never do) to ensure they are consistent on LinkedIn. 

🤝 WHOM DO WE WORK WITH:

We work with anyone who sees LinkedIn as a core channel. We work directly with the CEO or founder. 

🌐 LEARN MORE:

Demandii.com

We are hiring (again)!  Highlights:
-> $90,000 (CAD dollars)
-> Up to $39,000 in performance-based bonuses available!
-> 5-weeks vacation (from day 1)
-> Tons of autonomy
-> Work from Home (100% virtual)
-> Full-time (Mon-Fri)

This is great for agency AEs or B2B marketing strategy directors/leaders tired of the corporate hamster wheel. 

We are looking for people who are great at:

- Building rapport quickly and getting people to open up
- Confidently be able to run a call in a structured way
- Are comfortable sitting at the executive table
- Can coach a CEO (without being intimidated)
- Understand B2B enterprise sales cycles
- Love fast-paced environments
- Understand executive KPIs

Day-to-day responsibilities:

- You will interview (digitally) busy CEOs
- You'll manage a client book of 10-12 clients
- You'll turn that interview into snackable social media content (videos, text, images)

Your team will include two post-production people who will help with administrative tasks, graphic design, video editing, etc.

Bonus points if you have the following experience:

- worked at an agency before
- social copywriting experience
- have participated in Meme battles
- have demand gen experience with B2B
- understand the INs and OUTs of social networking & social selling
- can go head-to-head with other executives & understand C-Suite objectives
- know how to sell into complicated high-ticket B2B enterprise sales environments

If you have all the above experience, I'll (probably) hire you on the spot.

As long as you are not boring or beige. You must have some personality to fit in with our oddball culture.

Do not apply if:

- if you do not live in Canada
- if you don't love social media
- if you can't manage a calendar
- if you can't work independently
- if you don't even know the different C-Suite titles
- if you don't have any B2B marketing or sales experience
- if you are not competitive with board games (you’re out!)


If this sounds like your dream career, then here is how you apply:

1—Leave an interesting comment on this post (or DM if you are worried about your workplace finding out you are applying for this killer career opportunity).

2—Email Matthew at Matthew@demandii.com with a subject line that stands out.

3—In the email, explain why you are perfect for the job with a 60-second selfie video. The video does not need any fancy editing. If you can't make a 60-second video of yourself, you will not be right for this role.

4—In the email, include a link to your LI profile in that email.

5—Do not attach your resume. We don't read them. If you send it to us, we will ding you a point for not being able to follow instructions.

PS—Applying is a small test of your attention to detail. If you can't do this, trust me, you won't be able to do this job.

I help CEOs create all their snackable LinkedIn content in 1 hr/month -> Demandii.com

I say, it's irresponsible for founders and CEOs not to be building their personal brand online today.  These stats prove that.

CEOs can't ignore social media anymore

Don’t reward heroics. Reward systems.

A manager pulled off three client handoffs while covering two vacations last week. I told them the same thing I tell every ops lead:

“You did great. But you shouldn’t have to do that again.”

Heroic effort is not a sustainable business model.

Every time someone saves the day, ask: “How do we make sure this never needs saving again?”

Systems win over heroics every time.

Agree?

How can you reach customers when ninety percent of LinkedIn has turned into AI slop? 

I've helped over 250 CEOs build their brands on LinkedIn and published over 50,000 short-form posts, giving me an unfair advantage in seeing what works and what doesn't.

Here is what cuts through the AI slop:

1) Specificity
Talk about one situation, one moment, one mistake. Generic content is identical to AI content.

2) Scar tissue
If you have never bled for the lesson, do not post it. Buyers smell borrowed wisdom instantly.

3) Perspective
Do not recap consensus. Say what your market is afraid to say. The truth travels faster than templates.

4) Proof
Stories, numbers, internal tensions, tradeoffs. The stuff operators recognize immediately.

5) A point of view
Your take is the differentiator. Not your polished corporate jargon speech.

Wrap this into monthly community and events where you meet real people who are craving real human connections, and it's a recipe for growth!

I wasn’t supposed to make it.
I grew up middle-class poor.
I’ve got dyslexia.

If a teacher asked me to read cold, I’d freeze.
I had low confidence in myself as a kid. Thought I was the dumb kid in the room.
But I didn't give up. I'd study for hours. Some teachers gave pity Cs and Ds just for trying hard.

I wasn’t dumb. I just learned differently. I know that now, but back then, no clue.

In high school, I discovered acting because I auditioned for a show as a joke to my buddies.  I discovered that if I memorized the lines, I was actually pretty good at acting.  It led to 10 years of acting on stages around the world. It taught me how to communicate. How to read a room. How to perform under pressure.  But most of the time, I was broke.

Between plays, I worked every kind of blue-collar job you can imagine. And somehow, I’d always end up in management. Not because I wanted to climb. Because I would fix things (without being told).

But two things would happen at some point: every company would not fix some things that seemed obvious to me to fix, so I’d either quit or they’d fire me because I wouldn’t shut up about fixing them.

Turns out, that’s called entrepreneurship.

Later, I tried my hand at door-to-door sales, and that’s where it clicked that I could make money. I was good at selling. All those years of acting made me unafraid of rejection. If you can sell, you can have an unlimited income. It made me want more.

It led me to the internet. I taught myself how to build websites, SEO, run Google Adwords, etc.  I had 12 side hustles in the fire. I’ve got ADHD too, so focus never came easily.  

By 31, after years of talking about starting a business, I finally did it.

It took my girlfriend getting pregnant (now my wife) to force me to jump in with two feet and to focus on 1 opportunity. I’ve learned to focus now — painfully — over time, after smashing my head into walls for years. 

Since 31, I've built 5 businesses now:

The first one, I merged my agency with two bigger ones.
The second, I exited after a shotgun clause due to partner conflicts (that was fun—not!)
The third flopped completely, lost $40–50K and a year of my life, but I wanted to start something so badly to prove to myself I could build a business without my batshit crazy partners. 
The fourth evolved into the fifth — it is what I’m doing today with founder-led content at Demandii.

And this one’s working.
Finally!!!

Twenty years later, it feels like the training wheels are off.

Still making mistakes, but fewer now.
Still learning, never a dull day in building a bootstrapped business. 

If there’s one lesson I can leave you with, it’s this:

Don’t quit.

It’s not about perfection.
It’s about progression.
If you don't quit, you'll get there eventually.

You know your team's levelling up when they don't need you in the room anymore.  

There's a moment every founder hits.
You join a client call out of habit and realize… they've got it handled.

That happened this past week (for our onboarding workshops).

I hopped into a client onboarding and halfway through thought, "They don't need me anymore."

It is a double-edged sword. Not being needed is an odd feeling, but not being the smartest in the room also feels like freedom, to me. 

I've realized that my mission is to build up people's skills.

I've also accepted that, as I do, new people will need to use my business as training wheels to adopt new skills. This means I've become comfortable with bad things happening ... such as great clients leaving, etc.

It's not instant. I've spent months (even years) teaching frameworks, language, and muscle memory. But when it clicks, I get so excited for my team!

The mistake I see most new founders make is that they jump ship too soon. I used to make that mistake, too.

I would abdicate instead of learning the true art of delegation.

Delegating is empowering others by transferring responsibility with clear instructions and support while maintaining oversight, whereas abdicating is abandoning responsibility without guidance or accountability.

This means you need to coach a lot longer than you want to. It can be slog at times, but you got stress their skills in many situations. 

What have you discovered the best founders/leaders do to train up their teams?

Not a million impressions, so I must suck, right?

I don't care if you only get 10,000 impressions in a year.

What impresses me more is if you post helpful content every day.

The results will come if you put the reps in.

As they say, we overestimate what we can do in a year, but underestimate what you can do in a decade.

No alternative text description for this image

I told my team something most CEOs won’t say out loud. “I don’t want more clients next year. I want better ones.”

When you narrow your ICP, your cost per lead goes up. Your volume goes down.
But your retention skyrockets, simply by focusing in on who your best customers are. 

So then your margins expand.
Your team gets calmer, too. 
If the team is happier, better work gets done.
It creates a flywheel of positive energy in the right direction. 

Keeping or selling the wrong customers can lead so much drag in our businesses. 

Never be afraid to redirect your bottom 5% customers each year.
It's good for them.
It's good for you.
It's good for your team.

Everyone loves “scale.” Few understand the cost of scaling in the wrong direction. I witnessed it too many times, that I avoid it now like the black plague. 

I’d rather grow profit with fewer, better clients than chase revenue with the wrong ones.

What's been your experience?

Most people walk into interviews hoping to impress.
Bad move.

Walk in like a strategist.
Ask this one question upfront:

“Before we start, if this interview went perfectly, what would make it a hell yes for you to hire me on the spot?”

Then stop talking.

They’ll literally tell you how to win the interview.
Every answer you give after that just connects back to what they said.

That one question flips the dynamic.
You stop being the applicant.
You become the strategist.

And that’s how you get hired.

I reviewed a LinkedIn campaign last week where every lead magnet idea sounded brilliant, but it wasn't converting.

“Growth Efficiency Scorecard.”
“Owner Churn Calculator.”
“Early Warning Kit.”

All great words.
Just not their ideal buyers words.

Turns out, the target audience was property managers.
They don’t talk like SaaS founders.
They talk like operators ... people who fix toilets, manage cleaners, deal with real guests.

So we stripped out all the corporate jargon, studied how the industry actually talks, and rebuilt the assets using real estate and hospitality language.

Response rates jumped.

Lesson:
Your lead magnet offer isn’t “wrong.” Your vocabulary is.

Before you write a headline, go read how your customers describe their problems.  Review your sales calls transcripts, review online reviews for your business and competitors. Dissect the words they use.

They’ve already written your copy for you.

Everyone glamorizes the early grind.
Everyone fantasizes about the exit.
But nobody talks about the middle.

The stage where you’re too big to be scrappy and too small to have real leverage.

I told my team this point blank: “This phase is where founders have heart attacks.
This is the stage that breaks people.”

Most founders don’t fail at the beginning of the start-up stage.
They fail in the messy middle.
They fail at the stay-up stage.

The only way through is replacing yourself layer by layer.
Admin.
Delivery.
Marketing.
Sales.
Leadership.

One rung per year if you’re lucky.
It takes way longer than most think.
It's painful, especially if you haven't reached 5M yet, which is required to afford senior leadership roles. 

If you don’t overcome the replacement ladder, the business will collapse beneath you.

But if you do make it, you'll reach the scale-up stage, and that's when it gets exciting again.

Founder-led content doesn't work if you don't read the signals of people engaging with it, and then connect and DM them.

Performance Partners

Performance Partners is a strategic affiliate consulting agency for DTC Brands. We help grow your affiliate channel by connecting you with the right partners that can generate high-volume sales.

Our Mission:
Our mission is to forge dynamic partnerships that drive growth for DTC brands by connecting them with the world's leading affiliates. We're dedicated to fostering relationships that propel businesses to new heights, ensuring mutual success and excellence in the affiliate marketing landscape.

Specialties:

Affiliate Program Strategy, Systems and Process: We will teach you the strategy we used to build 8-figure affiliate programs for Goli and Onnit.

Super Affiliate Introductions: With over 15 years in affiliate marketing we have built a portfolio of the top affiliates in the world and can make direct introductions.

Affiliate Recruitment Strategy: We will teach you the process we use to recruit super affiliates to join your program.

Affiliate Management Strategy: Learn how to manage affiliate who specialize in paid media

Affiliate Program Optimization: Discover ways to make your program more attractive to super affiliates

Affiliate Network and Preferred Vendor Recommendations: Get access to our network of trusted vendors for content and funnel development.

Chief Executive Officer

iLife Technologies

iLife's mission is to make selling and buying life insurance faster, easier, and more enjoyable for agents, brokers, and customers. 

With iLife Technology, agents and brokers can sell more policies from anywhere in a fraction of the time. Consumers can easily compare plans from over 670,000 policy options, submit preliminary information to apply online in just a few clicks. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Affiliate Partnerships @ iLife Technologies

Carousel

Headquartered in Toronto, Carousel is a comprehensive digital and performance marketing platform that helps D2C brands across multiple industries acquire customers at scale.

I interface directly with senior client executives at global media agencies and e-commerce brands to build and/or revamp strategies across search, social, mobile and display channels. Integrating both strategy and implementation capabilities, we serve as extensions of in-house media teams to effectively allocate marketing spend, and develop the requisite infrastructure for long-term marketing success. Some of my other business development-focused responsibilities include:

♦ Lead and planned performance marketing campaigns strategy to efficiently scale growth across both paid and organic channels for some of the most inventive D2C ecom brands 
♦ Worked with media buying teams to evaluated existing digital marketing plans and infrastructure of clients to identify gaps, and propose data-driven recommendations on search, social, mobile, and display campaign optimization
♦ Provided insights internally on new developments and trends in performance marketing and user acquisition, and helped key stakeholders to think in the context of LTV and ROI

Agency Partner - Team Lead

Senior Agency Partner

Jumbleberry

As a Senior Affiliate Manager, I was responsible for developing and growing a multi-million dollar performance marketing portfolio in the Direct-To-Consumer vertical. I worked closely with the business development team to negotiate deals and acquire customers online for my clients.

Affiliate Manager - Team Lead

Office Ink

Office Ink was an office supply e-commerce venture that eventually scaled to 8+ employees across Canada servicing 600+ customers.

Taking ownership of a nationwide customer base and pipeline, I put together a sales and service team, and we collectively built the client book from the ground-up through a structured approach to prospecting and lead generation. I also led the development of commercial and go-to-market strategies, making key decisions in marketing, pricing, and promotions to win market share from incumbents in competitive markets. 

As a company, we leveraged our dedicated coverage and customer service capabilities to carve out a competitive advantage, and retain the confidence of SMBs and institutions.

Co-Founder & President

Mogenio

Spearheaded sales of a multi-million dollar affiliate portfolio with leadership of a team of 5. Played a central role in the establishment and growth of the satellite office in Luxembourg.

Director of Distribution

Mundo Media

As the Senior Affiliate Manager at Mundo Media, I worked closely with affiliate media buyers (web & mobile media buyers, websites, application owners, search marketers, etc.) to help facilitate promotional efforts for our advertising clients on a CPA/CPL/CPI basis. I analyzed publisher statistics on a daily basis to maximize revenue, identify opportunities, optimize campaigns and troubleshoot issues.

Director Affiliate Sales

As the Bilingual Online Marketing Coordinator at AIG, I developed several regional marketing plans for online quoting software. Tasks included: conducting primary market research, identifying regional client needs, communicating new sales and marketing strategies, implementing marketing plan through client presentations, promotional materials and an online presence.

Bilingual Online Marketing Coordinator

You've built a 7-8 figure health & beauty DTC brand. I will connect you with the top affiliates in the world

Hi - I’m Fred!

For over 16 years, I have been managing and scaling profitable affiliate programs that help DTC brands grow revenue.

Some of the questions I get asked are:

▪️ How do I recruit the top direct-response affiliates who specialize in paid media? 
(Email, Display, Tik Tok, Snap, FB, Google, Push)

▪️ How can I increase revenue with lower acquisition costs?

▪️ How can I reduce risk exposure and reliance on a small number of channels?

▪️ How do I structure commission payouts to ensure my brand's and affiliates' profitability?

▪️ How do I build direct response content to get customers to buy now?

▪️ How do I maintain brand, content, and messaging integrity?

In my experience of building/managing affiliate programs for networks and brands, and as an affiliate myself, I’ve worked in all facets of affiliate marketing, and I consider it my domain of expertise. 

I’ve also helped recruit affiliates for some of the biggest global DTC brands, including Goli, Onnit and FluffCo.

My job is to maximize your investment in affiliate marketing, educate you on the technical strategies, and deliver results that surpass your marketing goals.

👉 WHAT I DO:
- Affiliate Program Strategy, Systems and Process
- Super Affiliate Introductions
- Affiliate Recruitment Strategy
- Affiliate Management Strategy
- Affiliate Program Optimization
- Affiliate Network and Preferred Vendor Recommendations

CORE VALUES FOR SUCCESS: 🙏
1. Prioritize the needs and goals of the client 
2. Strive to be the best version of myself (Mamba Mentality)
3. Never shy away from difficult conversations
5. Be organized
5. Always take accountability for both the wins and losses

When I'm not working away, I love spending time with my wife & 2 kids, training for long-distance races and "attempting" to win my NBA fantasy league. 

If you're interested in learning more about how I can help solve some of your acquisition/affiliate challenges, drop me a message, and let's schedule a free call.

Frederic Jean-Bart

Just got back from Miami with 10 friends I've known for 22 years.

Most of us are married. Most have kids. Most of us run our own business. Few work as C-suite executives. Endless professional commitments. 

Taking time out for a trip every year is not easy. 

But here's what I've learned: Carving out time for friendships like these isn't optional.

We make it happen every quarter for dinner. Every year, for a bigger trip together. And every single time, I come back more motivated and inspired.

More than that, when we get together, it's nonstop laughs, stories, and memories. The inside jokes. The kind of connection that's only possible after two decades of showing up for each other.

Success means nothing without people to share it with. Social media may glorify the ‘build alone’ idea. But I’ve realized that in the long term, it makes zero sense.

You can pursue what you want, build exceptional companies, and get higher promotions. But don't forget to protect the relationships that make the journey worthwhile. 

And I’m sure people in their 30s and 40s will agree to this.

Affiliate Partnerships for 8-9 Figure DTC Brands | CEO @ Performance Partners | 17-Year Expert In Affiliate Recruitment

Performance Partners turns 3 today!

What started as a small vision for an affiliate marketing agency has grown into a fast-moving, premium partner for some incredible DTC brands.

Here’s what the journey has looked like so far…
from year-one experiments to scaling real, profitable programs.

To everyone who played a part in this: 
Thank you.
You helped build this.

P.S. Subscribe to my weekly newsletter. Link is in the comments.

Journey of building Performance Partners

I’m 41, running a 7-figure affiliate marketing agency remotely and have generated $250M for my clients in the last 17 years.

2009: I started as a jr. affiliate manager.
2025: Building & scaling Performance Partners 

It's been almost a 17-year journey in affiliate marketing. Here’s why I think affiliate marketing could replace paid media as the #1 growth channel for DTC brands in the next 5 years.

1. Paid ads are underperforming.

CRMs are up. ROAS is down. Meta and Google aren’t what they used to be.

2. Affiliate marketing builds trust.

People trust people, not ads. Creators, experts, and reviewers have more influence than banners. Affiliate marketing is relationship-driven, not algorithm-driven

3. Smart brands are shifting budgets.

Brands are already partnering with:

- Niche publishers
- Content creators
- Performance-driven media buyers

4. Tech platforms are enabling scale.

Platforms like TikTok Shop are leading the way. They make it easy for brands to partner with creators, track performance, and scale successful campaigns. It is turning creators into high-performance affiliates

It’s a sign that traditional ad platforms are going creator-first.
The future is performance-based and trust-led partnerships.

And that’s why I’m so bullish on the potential of affiliate marketing for 8 & 9-fig DTC brands.

We're running an internal competition right now at Performance Partners. Activate as many listicle-based affiliates and media buyers as possible before year-end.

The setup is simple. They're paired into teams, competing for bonuses with every new activation, and everyone (including me) is in the trenches making it happen. (And it's the best team building exercise I’ve been part of)

Reason is simple: Q4 is THE best time to work with these affiliates.
They're actively looking for new offers to test, and October, November and December are their biggest months.

Here's what makes this different:
These aren't coupon affiliates. They're not bottom-of-funnel traffic scrapers.
We are targeting list-based affiliates to go after NEW customer segments. Audiences our clients aren't reaching through their own channels. Real top-of-funnel volume that actually scales.

The results so far:

→ Building relationships with some of the biggest listicle affiliates in the space
→ Already generating new customers for our clients
→ Our clients love it because it's incremental growth
→ The team momentum is incredible, everyone's engaged and pushing forward.

This is an affiliate-type and traffic source that most agencies and brands don't work with. That's exactly why it creates so much value. After all, these affiliates have the ability to generate massive volume when activated correctly.

At 27, I launched an e-commerce business selling office supplies to other businesses with a friend. We scaled the company to 600+ locations with a full-time team of 8 people.

I was a first-time founder with 0 prior experience in building businesses.

It was a roller-coster ride. 
There were months where I took no salary.
There were months where I reinvested my income into the business.

Still, we couldn’t scale it the way we wanted.

And we had to take the heartbreaking call to shut the operations.

Letting the team members go, parting ways with my friend and the disappointment of failure- it all was too much to deal with.

But that failure gave me what no MBA ever could.

Most people think the hard part of entrepreneurship is having a great idea. Wrong. 

The hard part is the 100 small things that paralyze you before you even start.

‘What legal structure do I need?’
‘How do I hire my first employee?’
‘Where do I even begin with sales?’

That e-commerce venture taught me that none of it is as complicated as your brain makes it out to be.

Fast Forward to 2022…
When I decided to launch my second venture, Performance Partners; I had much more clarity. No mental hurdles. I just wasn't scared anymore.

Launch a website? Done. 
Set up finance systems? Easy. 
Handle legal paperwork? No problem.

That "failed" e-commerce business was actually the best training ground I never paid for. It's why I can now run Performance Partners as a solo founder; managing sales, operations, finance, and growth, without getting overwhelmed.

Want to build something of your own? Better to go out, fail, learn, and try again than to live with the regret of never starting at all.

What's a "failure" that actually set you up for success? I'd love to hear your story.

P.S. Here's a breakdown of 5 strategic changes that we made to make $1.2M for a client in just 5 months: https://lnkd.in/gGX793ty

(P.P.S. When we went to visit our suppliers in Shanghai, China back in 2014)

We just activated one of the biggest listicle affiliates in the industry for two of our clients. A media buyer who consistently spends up to six figures a day during Q4.

When you're dealing with affiliates at this level, activation is the hardest part. 

They're getting hit up by everyone: networks, agencies, brands. Everyone knows they're big, so the competition for their attention is intense.

And we got them on board. Revenue is already flowing. 
And the growth looks incredible.

They're going to be a major driver of our Black Friday and Cyber Monday numbers for both clients; exactly what these brands wanted when they came to us looking for real affiliate media buyer partnerships.

And we're not stopping here. We have more high-performing listicle affiliates in the pipeline.

Big wins in the affiliate space are always strategic. 

They happen when you've built the relationships, proven the value, and can cut through the noise to get top-tier partners activated.

P.S. In the next issue of my newsletter, I am sharing my 5-step framework to scale any program to 5-figures a month in the first month. Subscribe here: www.freddysfastfive.com

When I was leading the affiliate growth strategy for a portfolio of $50M+ D2C brands, our client launches were a mess. Broken pixels. Messy tracking. Last-minute “Can you fix this today?” DMs on Slack.

Every new brand took forever to get live. And clients got annoyed (quite understandably) because results were slow.

One day an affiliate media buyer said:
“We need a simple launch system.”

So we rebuilt the whole thing from scratch using a very basic 3-step setup:

1. Foundation check: We verified pixels, events, audiences, and product feeds in 20 minutes. 

2. Starter campaign pack: We launched one search, one social, and one display affiliate with proven templates that always worked for other D2C brands.

3. First 7-day scorecard
Track only four numbers: EPC, CVR, CAC, and revenue. Ignore everything else until week two.

That’s it. No 50-slide audit. Almost zero friction. 

And within two months:

• Launch times dropped from 10 days to 3.
• CAC improved because campaigns went live cleaner.
• Clients and affiliates were satisfied because they saw results early.

That is a lesson every brand and affiliate manager needs to understand (and put into action):

Most ‘complex’ growth problems get solved by simple systems and smaller steps. Making your system less ‘overwhelming’ for your partners and clients should be your #1 priority.

P.S. Subscribe to my weekly newsletter 'Freddy's Fast Five': www.freddysfastfive.com

I recently sat down with Sean Lang for his podcast to talk about building and scaling agencies.

We discussed many things during our conversation, and it was one of those discussions that reminded me why putting yourself out there and having real conversations with other founders matters.

Here's what we discussed:

1. Scaling teams effectively: How to build and grow a team that can handle growth without breaking your operations
2. Sticking to your ICP: Why staying focused on your ideal client profile is critical, and the costly mistakes that happen when you don't
3. Lessons learned building an agency: The hard-earned insights from years of trial and error that I wish I knew earlier

These conversations always push me to think differently about how I'm running my business. 

Sean asked great questions that made me reflect on decisions I've made and where I'm headed next.

If you're an agency owner or thinking about starting one, I think you'll get a lot of value from this episode.: https://lnkd.in/gzxius95

In the last 45 days, we brought 2 major changes to the way we operate at Performance Partners. Here’s what I changed in the back end.

1. We launched a 30-day sprint package for brands that aren’t our ICP.

The reason was simple: 
- To onboard brands faster.
- To build trust quickly through quick wins.
- To create a low-friction entry point for new clients.

Many brands don’t want to commit to long-term retainers immediately. This offer makes it easier for them to experience the value without a big commitment.

It also protects our interests because not every brand is a brand we want to work with long-term. So it helps us to get an idea about the future collaboration scope.

This has resulted in:

- Improved cash-flow consistency because payments are upfront.
- Better client-fit filtering (only the right clients convert to retainers)
- Prevents long-term situations with poor-fit clients.

We built a complete SOP with the operations team that maps every step required to complete the sprint engagement.

2. We opened up affiliate recruitment across the entire team (not just affiliate managers) and tied it to performance bonuses.

Affiliate managers were splitting time between recruitment and client management, creating a bottleneck.

But with this operational change, if anyone recruits specific types of affiliates and gets them activated, they earn a bonus.

As a result, recruitment velocity increased (more affiliates pitched and activated weekly). And affiliate managers are freed up to focus on optimization and strategy.

Operations are about removing friction, creating incentives, and enabling your team to move faster. And that was the core idea behind these 2 changes.

P.S. Another intense discussion in our weekly call. I can guarantee that it was not about scaling programs, lol!

AI is changing the affiliate marketing industry silently. 
Here's something I've been thinking about lately: 

B2B affiliate marketing is messy. Way messier than B2C. You've got these incredibly long sales cycles, complex buyer journeys with multiple stakeholders, and transactions that can make or break quarterly numbers. 

Traditional affiliate strategies just don't cut it anymore.

The partner selection problem is a real challenge for any affiliate marketer. 

I've seen too many B2B teams waste months chasing high-traffic affiliates who look impressive on paper but deliver garbage leads. Because they're optimizing for the wrong metrics.

AI flips this by looking beyond vanity metrics. Instead of just traffic volume, it analyzes content relevance, historical lead quality, and industry alignment.

"Will this partner actually move the needle for our specific business?" thinks every CMO. And AI solves this exact problem.

I came across a case recently where AI identified a relatively small tech blog that consistently delivered qualified SaaS leads, even though it had a fraction of the traffic compared to larger sites. That's the kind of insight that changes everything.

Let’s look at it objectively. AI doesn't replace relationship-building or strategic thinking. But it does give you a much smarter starting point for where to invest your time and budget.

In B2B, where every partnership decision has a significant downstream impact, that intelligence matters more than most people realize.

What you think top affiliates want:

Higher commissions
Longer cookie windows
Better payouts
A pitch like “We’re a great product, please consider us”

What top affiliates ACTUALLY need:

Test budgets ($500–$2,500) to offset risk when trying your brand
Flat-fee + commission deals so they can forecast returns
Exclusive placement windows (30–60 days) to make your offer worth prioritizing
Access to proven content, creatives, and funnels 

An elite affiliate, who sends millions in traffic every month, will never be fascinated by a few % more ONLY. 

Show them that you care about their predictability.
Show them that you are trying to minimize their risks.
Show them that there is a huge upside potential of the deal.

P.S. The next issue of my weekly newsletter goes live in 24 hours. Subscribe here: www.freddysfastfive.com

Open article: Freddy's Fast Five by freddysfastfive.com

This post is for every e-com brand. Affiliate marketing can NOT be an after thought or a passive acquisition channel. PERIOD. I have worked with and consulted 250+ brands in the last 17 years. And the pattern is clear.

Brands treat affiliate marketing as a ‘nice-to-have’ channel. But this is actually a sales channel. Unlike paid ads, affiliate marketing deals with people, not platforms.

And that means:
You need relationships to win.

Here’s what most brands do:

1- They set up an affiliate program.
2- Then they sit back and wait.
3- And just HOPE.

They rely on inbound applications from affiliates.

They aren’t doing consistent daily outreach.
They aren’t tracking follow-ups.
That will NEVER work.

You need an ‘active’ approach to the entire recruitment game.

Here’s how we adopt a sales-driven approach to scale programs for our clients at Performance Partners:

1. Outbound outreach:
Set weekly/monthly targets. Track it like a pipeline.

2. Follow-ups:
One message is never enough. The money is always in the follow-up. Big affiliates are busy.

3. Discovery calls:
Talk to affiliates. Learn what motivates them. Understand how they choose which programs to promote.

4. Negotiation:
Use those insights to create custom offers that actually excite them to promote you.

The brands that treat affiliates like sales reps scale the fastest.
That’s how you build an affiliate engine that actually drives revenue.

Or else your program struggles to scale past 4-figures a month. I will be talking about why most programs fail in just 3 months in the next issue of my newsletter. Goes live soon. Subscribe here: www.freddysfastfive.com

People overcomplicate business.
Especially B2B companies.

Your service needs to do 1 of these 3:

- Make your client more money.
- Reduce their cost/ expense.
- Save them time.

Nail one, and you're set.

Anything other than that is an issue of marketing, outreach, or delivery.
Not your offer.

Fix that. And the business will take care of itself.

Just wrapped up the book “The 38 Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to His Son”, and it was an amazing read.

Most importantly, the lessons still hold true in 2025 and beyond.

And my fav part of the book: In a world filled with opportunities, patience is crucial. Cultivate emotional intelligence and decision-making based on rational needs rather than fleeting emotions. 

Have you read this book? If not, it’s a 10/10 recommendation from me.

Black Friday season is here. It’s the biggest growth period for any brand. We’ve helped clients generate $100M+ during BFCM.

Irrespective of the niche.
Irrespective of the product.
By following a proven framework.

And I’m unveiling the 7-step framework I use to scale brands: ‘Affiliate Marketing Black Friday Guide’: https://lnkd.in/gJY4im9h

I have scaled my company to 7-figures in 2.5 years. 
One mistake I wish I hadn’t made:
Saying ‘Yes’ to every single client.

Initially, we wanted to grow fast. So we worked with every client that came our way.
(Most early-stage founders can relate to this.)

We didn’t care about the niche.
We didn’t care about their budget.
We didn’t care about the market fit.

That means we had to create different offers, proposals, and plans for every client.

But it took me 18 months to realize: 
(after some tough experience)

- Some brands had unrealistic expectations.
- Some brands weren’t ready for affiliate marketing at all.
- Some clients were far outside their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).

The lack of results wasn’t due to a lack of effort or skill on their side.
It was simply a misalignment in fit.

As a result, some clients were unhappy, my team felt discouraged, and the internal team morale suffered.

Now we prioritize onboarding the right clients.

It shows we’ve:

Refined their ICP.
Improved their screening process.
Built confidence in long-term success.

Result:
Better results for the clients
Long-term partnership
Predictable revenue

So, if you’re in the B2B space, looking for sustainable and scalable growth, nail down your ICP and STICK to it. (You can thank me later!)

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