Digital IQ 

You're reading this because you want to grow and scale your ambitious e-commerce brand, but you:

• Have lack of knowledge and resources to embark on this difficult and, in most cases, lethal journey for brands. 

• Understand that mastering various paid channels in addition to email and SMS marketing is the only way to run, expand, and scale e-commerce business. 

• Need someone to tell your story and deliver a compelling message on the proper platform at the right time. 

• Desire to focus on running your business operations, managing a strong business, and enjoying the results of your work.

This is where we jump in.


👉🏼 Here's what we'll do for you:

• Determine your MARKETING STRATEGY, key indicators, goals, and tactics in relation to the goals and target audience of your brand.

• Set up excellent ANALYTICS that go beyond the limitations of post-iOS changes and allow us to make DATA-DRIVEN decisions.

• Manage your budget and OPTIMIZE performance of your campaigns across all the advertising channels.

• Ensure a constant SUPPLY of UGC (User Generated Content), designs, and text for all forms of advertisements.

• Build an excellent RETENTION RATE through email and SMS marketing, which will be a key factor in increasing CUSTOMER LOYALTY.

• Make sure your website is set up in such a way that it gives the best user experience and, as a result, a HIGH CONVERSION RATE.

• Work on improving AOV (Average Order Value) and LTV (Customer Lifetime Value) with additional tactics and tools.

• Create advanced, time-limited campaigns and OFFERS that will not be based only on discounts.

• Advise you during the DECISION-MAKING processes, but the final decision will always be yours.


Are you ready to grow and scale your eCommerce brand, take control of your business, and become the FIRST option in your Target Audience's mind?

👉🏼 Shoot me a DM, or head over to my Featured section and check out our Offer.

See you on the other side.

Founder

Vitapur Group

Digital Marketing Manager

Crazy Dice GmbH

Performance Marketing Specialist

TNT Online management Ltd

Digital Marketing Specialist

Futuring Ltd

2008 - This is where my story began.

You probably know that I own Digital Marketing Agency specialized for D2C Businesses growth and scale, although I originally started as a graphic designer.

• Created more than 100 different logos, business cards, and letterheads for micro and medium-sized companies. 
• Designed over 20,000 pages of sales and presentation materials.
• Crafted hundreds of pure gold e-mail campaigns. 

Thankfully, a lot of them remain in operation today. And a few of them have grown into businesses with over 200 employees.
 

2012 - My first foray into the digital world 

I started designing websites, online stores, and lead pages and I studied UI and UX design.

Building and running mid-sized projects with different teams and agencies gave me a broad insight into how systems work.

I gained unbeatable experience in:
• Digital design
• Customer experience
• e-Commerce design
• Buyer psychology
• Teamwork
• Outsourcing
• Running a small business


2013 - Online marketing addiction 

Part of my service was on autopilot. I had extra time.

I could have had a bright future as a well-known digital designer with a feeling for aesthetics, user experience, and details, but I decided to go another way.

The artist inside of me decided to design products for the masses. 

• The problem -> "How to reach, how to sell to the masses."
• The solution -> Niche products + eCommerce + Paid Advertising + E-mail marketing.

And that's how I started with what I'm mastering today. 

• 5 Words: D2C Digital Marketing and Buyers' Psychology

Yes, I'm still learning.

Freelancer in Graphic Design, UI/UX Design, Digital Marketing

Podjetniški inkubator Podbreznik

Business Consultant

You're reading this because you want to grow and scale your ambitious e-commerce brand, but you:

• Have lack of knowledge and resources to embark on this difficult and, in most cases, lethal journey for brands. 

• Understand that mastering various paid channels in addition to email and SMS marketing is the only way to run, expand, and scale e-commerce business. 

• Need someone to tell your story and deliver a compelling message on the proper platform at the right time. 

• Desire to focus on running your business operations, managing a strong business, and enjoying the results of your work.

This is where we jump in.


👉🏼 Here's what I'll do for you:

• Determine your MARKETING STRATEGY, key indicators, goals, and tactics in relation to the goals and target audience of your brand.

• Set up excellent ANALYTICS that go beyond the limitations of post-iOS changes and allow us to make DATA-DRIVEN decisions.

• Manage your budget and OPTIMIZE performance of your campaigns across all the advertising channels.

• Ensure a constant SUPPLY of UGC (User Generated Content), designs, and text for all forms of advertisements.

• Build an excellent RETENTION RATE through email and SMS marketing, which will be a key factor in increasing CUSTOMER LOYALTY.

• Make sure your website is set up in such a way that it gives the best user experience and, as a result, a HIGH CONVERSION RATE.

• Work on improving AOV (Average Order Value) and LTV (Customer Lifetime Value) with additional tactics and tools.

• Create advanced, time-limited campaigns and OFFERS that will not be based only on discounts.

• Advise you during the DECISION-MAKING processes, but the final decision will always be yours.


Are you ready to grow and scale your eCommerce brand, take control of your business, and become the FIRST option in your Target Audience's mind?

👉🏼 Shoot me a DM, or head over to my Featured section and check out our Offer.

See you on the other side.

Robert Balkovec

CMO+

Dynamic Fractional CMO/CRO with a proven track record in early-stage growth, specializing in scaling companies from $3-10MM to $10-30MM in annual revenue. I focus on building robust revenue operations, strategic marketing frameworks, and sustainable growth plans that align with a company’s unique trajectory. With hands-on leadership and a data-driven approach, I work alongside founders and teams to optimize processes, refine brand messaging, and expand market share.

Fractional CMO

V&L Growth Labs

-  Accelerating the growth of the consumer business through both direct digital sales & sales enablement across a network of franchise partners.
 - Building and leading an integrated marketing function encompassing both the B2B side of the business as well as the fast-growing D2C side.
 -Championing a customer-centric culture, team & attitude infused with digital and retail (or local) agility.

Partner

Brand Buddha

Lead management, account, and development teams through significant growth at a leading brand & creative marketing agency

* Manage 20+ account managers, designers, and developers 
* Promote and train four department directors 
* Manage a diverse roster of healthcare, pharma, biotech, and MedTech clients  
* Architected a company restructure resulting in a dramatic and qualifiable increase in ARR profit 
* Design and roll out a new project management department/system 
* Develop key accountabilities and responsibilities for all roles 
* Oversee talent acquisition, assessment, and placement of local and independent contractors

President - Chief Strategy Officer

Leveraged core advertising planning skills and experience to define and transform brands. Worked with clients to define brand goals, brief creative, and develop strategies based on consumer insights, trend analysis, and business objectives.  Led consumer research and insight development, bringing qual and quant together in collaboration with data analysts. Worked in concert with clients to provide strategic direction across the brand’s ecosystem (web, email, social, mobile, retail, activations, etc.).Lead client stakeholder meetings and workshops. Led team developing research including competitive analysis, emerging opportunities, and consumer insights. Provided strategic guidance on emerging media channels and platforms.

Vice President Brand Management & Strategy

Responsible for leading and executing strategic planning and business development functions for Brand Buddha. Serves as the primary strategy resource for Brand Buddha clients, and has oversight for relationship development, network development, strategic evaluation of business plans, affiliations, joint ventures, acquisitions and marketing.

Vice President Of Business Development

ConstantPLAN - (acquired August 2016)

ConstantPLAN is a wall-to-wall marketing and media organization focused on creating brands for individual business professionals. ConstantPLAN's methodology creates strong, hyper-local brands for advisors, consultants, attorneys, and professionals in the advice business.

Senior Vice President Marketing

PointServ

Developed and implemented sales forecasting, planning, and budgeting processes. Establishes high levels of quality, accuracy, and process consistency in planning, forecasting, and budgeting approaches used by the sales organization.

Developed and administer and compensation, commission plans and incentive development and tracking. 

Created company-wide sales plan. Prepares forecasts, including significant input into strategic planning and the direction of the PointServ.

Developed company-wide training systems designed to raise sales performance against plan for all aspects of the sales group across a variety of key performance metrics. Implements metrics to generate data and tracking for decision making.

Currently providing knowledge and experience-based leadership to PointServ (particularly Sales, Finance and Marketing) to guide effective decision-making and continuous improvement.

Vice President - Sales & Marketing

Valentine & Lewis

As VP of Institutional Accounts my daily efforts are to lead new account acquisition of multi-channel financial services product platform, and to foster working C-level professional relationships. Strategically, my responsibilities are to create organic leads of targeted prospects, to score potential relationships for profitability and to oversee the multi-stage sales process for all prospective C-level relationships.

A leader in delivering corporate and "accredited investor" solutions, V&L Institutional Services mission is to empower corporate officers with the most effective cash management, investment philosophy, key personnel retention strategies, and HR retirement platforms they require, in order to optimize their financial needs and meet their business strategy.

V&L Institutional Services is changing how "accredited" investors approach the Reg D marketplace by combining high altitude analytics with performance predictive capabilities.

VP of Institutional Accounts

Raymond James Financial Inc.

•Effectively managed expansion and business operations for the Western Region
•Energized Defined Contributions (DC) & Defined Benefit (DB) business through approximately three new market territories in the Southwest resulting in 34 new corporate relationships.
•Delivered effective plan selection and employee education for corporations, institutions, foundations, and accredited individuals
•Actively managed dynamic pooled asset accounts
•Presented retirement sales training and market updates relating to best practices for DB, DC, NQDC, etc. plans.

Vice President, Private Wealth Management 

Associate Vice President

Prudential Financial (previously Prudential Securities)

Financial Advisor

Terminix

Vice President Direct Sales

You are a founder. A CEO. An Entrepreneur. What you know about marketing, sales, and revenue operations has taken your company as far as it can.  

You likely have a couple of entry/mid-level marketers or a consultant or two on your payroll. You know marketing, sales, and revenue operations are evolving rapidly due to AI systems. You know you need to do something now. 

That is where I come in.

I work with startup founders (seed to series B) to turn their vision into actionable strategy, systems, and execution that attracts the right eyeballs, engages, and converts new business to scale your revenue operations. 

𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬. 3-6 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬

In the past 24 months, I’ve scaled 8 startups from $8MM ARR to $49MM by fixing one thing: The math behind growth.

𝐌𝐲 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡:

𝐀𝐈 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐏𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞: The systems I employ slash CAC by 40%* in 90 days (no, that’s not a typo).
𝐏𝐥𝐮𝐠-𝐚𝐧𝐝-𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠: Done-for-you frameworks for messaging, ads, and lead gen—no “strategy debt.”
𝐙𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐕𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐬: I obsess over revenue, not likes or clicks.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐈𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 (3-6 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡)

𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐲: I reverse-engineer your funnel to find where $$ bleeds (spoiler: it’s usually attribution).
𝐀𝐈 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐡𝐚𝐮𝐥: Deploy tested systems to hyper-target high-LTV customers (not just “more traffic”).
𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐭: Train your team to run the machine—so you don’t need me forever.

Getting beyond $5M ARR isn’t luck. 

𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐅𝐢𝐱 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐡:
I only take 3 clients per quarter. DM me today.

If you’re a founder building something real - and ready to scale, let’s talk.

Will G.

Most SMBs don’t have a marketing problem.
They have a systems problem.

Leads slip through cracks.
Follow-up is slow.
Tools don’t talk to each other.
Teams are drowning in manual work.
Founders can’t see what’s working and what isn’t.

Marketing feels chaotic because the system underneath it is broken.

Fix the system → marketing works.
Fix the system → sales accelerates.
Fix the system → your team stops drowning.

If you want clarity, I’m running a handful of 15-minute Revenue Systems Audits this week.

DM me AUDIT and I’ll send you the info.

Will Gould

Author of The Chief Revenue Architect. I build automated, AI-driven revenue operating systems for SMBs (AA+OS) and teach operators the architecture skills replacing collapsing GTM roles. Fractional CMO/CRO

10 Parts of the Sales Process You Can Automate Right Now (And the 3 You Should Never Touch)

Most founders think automation is a nice-to-have.

Operators think automation is risky.

Revenue teams think automation replaces their jobs.

They’re all wrong.

Automation replaces tasks, not people.

But, only if you know where to apply it.
Here are the 10 sales workflows that should have already been automated:

Lead capture
Lead routing
Form enrichment
First-touch email
Meeting scheduling
No-show sequences
Proposal follow-ups
Stalled deal nudges
Basic qualification
CRM hygiene updates

These are pure friction.
No one builds a career repeating them.
But here are the 3 parts of sales you should never automate:

Discovery
Diagnosis
Decisions

These require judgment, the one asset AI can’t replicate.
If you automate the wrong layer, you lose revenue.
If you automate the right one, you gain speed.

The companies that win the next decade won’t out-sell their competitors.

They’ll out-system them.

McKinsey just published their 2025 AI Impact On Business Report - 10 Ways AI Just Quietly Rewrote Sales, Marketing & RevOps (And Most Teams Haven’t Noticed Yet)

McKinsey’s newest AI report makes it painfully clear,  the real shift in sales, marketing, and RevOps already happened, and most teams are still acting like it’s 2019.

AI is collapsing the operator layer
McKinsey’s data shows companies are automating the repetitive middle.
That “operator” tier in Sales/Marketing/RevOps? It’s disappearing fast.

The highest-performing companies are building AI-first systems
Not tools.  Not experiments.  Systems.

Pipeline forecasting is becoming a machine task
Operators aren’t losing their jobs to AI,  they’re losing them to math.

Buyer journey orchestration is now real-time.  AI-driven micro-coordination is replacing human follow-up.

Content is infinite,  differentiation is not
AI leveled the production playing field.  The new advantage is structural clarity: messaging frameworks, segmentation logic, and lifecycle architecture.

CAC drops when systems, not people, run touchpoints
McKinsey notes AI’s biggest benefits are efficiency and personalization.

Data governance moved from “IT task” to “RevOps survival skill”
AI breaks when data breaks. Most companies still have duct-taped systems and ungoverned lifecycle logic.

Sales productivity gains are coming from agents, not reps
McKinsey highlights the rise of agentic systems.  One strategic leader managing dozens of agents is not sci-fi,  it’s the next org chart.

Cross-functional silos are now pure revenue leakage 
AI requires end-to-end flow, not departmental borders.

The only irreplaceable role is the one designing the system
This is the entire thesis of The Chief Revenue Architect:
AI isn’t making humans obsolete.  It’s making the wrong humans obsolete.

Open article: The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation by mckinsey.com

The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation

Most revenue systems don’t fail all at once. They fail one small break at a time.

If you’ve built your marketing and revenue ops over years, you’re probably running a patchwork. You added tools when you needed them. 

You layered fixes when things broke. It worked… until it didn’t.
Here’s what that patchwork does to your system.

You get duplicate lead creation events. Different tools decide what a “lead” is. Your counts inflate. Your attribution breaks. Sales stops trusting the data.

You fix it by defining one lead creation event and forcing every tool to follow it.

You think you respond fast, but you don’t. Your automations wait on enrichment, scoring, routing, or approvals. Your response time stretches. You lose high-intent leads.

You fix it by separating immediate response from enrichment. Speed first. Clean up later.

Leads recycle without anyone noticing. Old rules and new automations overlap. Prospects get re-nurtured after rejection. Sales sees dead leads come back to life.

You fix it by owning lifecycle states and locking down entry and exit rules.

Your attribution changes depending on where you look. CRM says one thing. Marketing automation says another. BI says something else.

You fix it by choosing one source of truth and making every other tool consume it.

Old automations keep firing. No one remembers why they exist. No one owns them. They still write data and trigger actions.

You fix it by inventorying every automation and assigning an owner, purpose, and kill rule.

“Qualified” means something different everywhere. Marketing scores one way. Sales decides another way. AI learns from both and gets confused.

You fix it by defining qualification once and enforcing it at the data level.
Enrichment tools overwrite sales edits. Good data disappears. 

Personalization breaks. Reps stop trusting the system.

You fix it by setting clear write rules for every field.

High-intent signals arrive late. Someone visits pricing. Someone books time. The system reacts hours later.

You fix it by routing signals in real time instead of through stacked workflows.

Unsubscribes don’t stick. Prospects opt out in one place and keep getting messages elsewhere.

You fix it by centralizing consent and enforcing it everywhere.

One or two people know how everything works. When they’re busy or gone, progress stops.

You fix it by documenting the system, not just the tools.

AI starts strong, then gets worse. Data quality drifts. Automations pile up. Outputs lose credibility.

You fix it by stabilizing the system before asking AI to run it.

None of these problems look big on their own.
 
Together, they slow revenue, break trust, and make every new tool underperform.

This isn’t a talent problem.  It isn’t a tool problem.  It’s an architecture problem.

That’s the work I do.
 
That’s what the Chief Revenue Architect role exists to fix.

Cs, VPs, and Directors.  It's time to pivot.

I’m seeing the same pattern everywhere.

CMOs narrowing their scope.

VPs of Sales losing leverage.

RevOps teams getting pulled in too many directions.

CS leaders getting dragged into revenue conversations they never owned before.

This isn’t a performance issue.
It’s a structural shift.

The truth is simple. Everyone in revenue is going to have to pivot.

Not into a new title overnight.
Not into doing everyone else’s job.

But into understanding and overseeing the entire revenue system, not just one slice of it.

For years, revenue worked because the gaps were filled by people.

Marketing handed things off.
Sales adapted.
CS smoothed over the edges.
Ops stitched it all together.

That model doesn’t hold anymore.

Automation removes the glue work.
AI removes the coordination work.

What’s left is the system itself.
That’s why domain leadership is collapsing inward.

CMOs can’t just own demand.
VPs of Sales can’t just own close.
CS can’t just own retention.
RevOps can’t just own tooling.

The leaders who survive this shift are learning the other domains.
Not to replace them.
To govern them.

They’re learning how demand becomes pipeline.
 How pipeline becomes forecast.
 How forecast becomes revenue.
 How revenue feeds retention and expansion.

And how the whole thing breaks when definitions, data, and logic don’t line up.
This is where the roles converge.
Different backgrounds.
Different strengths.
One responsibility.
Designing and overseeing the end-to-end revenue system.

That’s the pivot.

It’s already happening.

And pretending otherwise is how good leaders get left behind.

Most teams think they have a pipeline problem. They don’t.

They have a systems problem. They keep trying to duct-tape with new tools.

You can’t bolt AI, automation, and outbound triggers onto a GTM engine built a decade ago and expect it to scale.

SDRs can’t out-dial the inefficiencies.

Marketing can’t out-create the noise.

Sales can’t out-close misalignment.

The companies winning right now did one thing differently:
 
They rebuilt the architecture before adding firepower.
Architect → Automate → Accelerate.
In that order.

Everyone else is just rearranging broken parts.

AI will replace what you do today. Count on it. Bet on it. 

Cs, VPs, & Directors of revenue domains. 

Execution is getting automated. All of it. A lot faster than most know. 
 
Decision-making is not.

What still matters is judgment: priorities, tradeoffs, and system design.

The future isn’t a better VP of Marketing, Sales, or RevOps.

It’s a leader who understands the entire revenue system and can design it end-to-end.

This is the pivot most leaders are avoiding.

Your next job is not execution.
 
It’s architecture.

That means:
 • thinking across domains, not defending one
 • designing systems, not managing people doing tasks
 • owning outcomes, not activities
 • making decisions AI can run, not work you have to babysit

This is why I wrote The Chief Revenue Architect.

Not to scare operators.

But to give Cs, VPs, and Directors a path forward when the job they were trained for disappears faster than expected.

AI will take your current work.

What it won’t take is your ability to see the whole board and design how revenue actually flows.

But only if you build that portfolio now.

#CMO #CRO

Most GTM teams have three layers:
• Strategy
• Execution
• The operators in the middle holding everything together

Guess which layer AI is swallowing?
Not strategy.
Not leadership.
The middle.

Operators feel it first because they’re the ones doing:
admin work
workaround work
duct-tape fixes
cross-team logistics
manual data stitching
“who owns this?” cleanups

AI removes those tasks faster than leaders can rewrite job descriptions.
This isn’t replacing people.

It’s replacing the part of every job no one actually wanted.

But here’s the twist:

The people who understand the whole system, not just their task, become more valuable than ever.

There's a new leadership postion emerging...The Chief Revenue Architect.

Client: “We added automations. We added AI assistants.  Why does everything feel worse?”

--This conversation from yesterday happens a couple of times a week--

Me:  "Walk me through your revenue systems- marketing, sales, onboarding, retention."

Client: “Well… It’s a mix of old workflows, some Salesforce logic we inherited, a few Zapier connections, three attribution models, and a bunch of stuff people built before they left.”

Me: “So… a patchwork.”

Client: “I mean… yeah. But AI is supposed to make it better, right?”


AI doesn’t fix patchwork.  Automation doesn’t fix patchwork.  They amplify it.

I had a conversation this morning that is sticking with me.

I was talking with a CEO about their team’s day.

Slack messages piling up.  Dashboards half-trusted.   Automations layered on top of tools that were never meant to work together.

At one point, they paused and said,
 
“I feel like we are doing everything right… and it’s still heavier than it should be.”

That line hit.

Because most teams I see aren’t failing.
 
They’re carrying the weight of decisions made years ago, patched systems, one-off fixes, and workarounds that slowly became the job.

So they hire more people.  Add more tools. Push harder.

But the load never really gets lighter.

The quiet part out loud: at some point, effort stops being the answer. The system itself has to change.

AI & Automation Aren't Breaking Your System. Your System Is Breaking AI & Automation.

Most GTM systems were built for manual coordination, not automation, and definitely not AI. When companies bolt new tools onto legacy logic, every flaw multiplies. 

Automations fire inconsistently. 
Data degrades. 
AI models make bad inferences. 

The system becomes slower and more chaotic than before. This isn’t a people problem; it’s a structural incompatibility. 

You can’t patchwork your way into an AI-first operating model. You have to re-architect the revenue system so automation and AI have a stable foundation to build on.

Does your company have a  "we automated a system that wasn't stable" problem?

That's likely why everything feels slower, more chaotic, and harder to manage. Automation didn't break your workflows. It revealed how fragile they already were.

AI didn't create data inconsistencies. It amplified the ones you've been ignoring for years.

#1 need I encountered as a f-CMO in late 2025? Rolling back automations and AIs that made life harder.

You can't patch a legacy GTM system with new automation and expect it to run faster. You get a louder version of the same dysfunction.

The fix isn't another tool. It's architecture.

Someone needs to own the layer beneath the workflows, the stage definitions, the source-of-record rules, the coordination logic that automation and AI depend on.

That's not an ops role. That's architectural work.

And most companies don't have anyone doing it yet.

Every decade we chase the next miracle tool.
 
The pattern never changes.
 
What breaks isn’t the tech.  It’s the system we plug it into.

taplio

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