Ryan is the Co-Founder of Tru Earth

Purpose driven direct to  consumer brand builder.

Ryan has:

✅ Helped Grow Tru Earth to more than 160,000 active subscribing customers
✅ Together with Tru Earth's Changemakers, eliminated more than 165,000,000 plastic-containers from landfills..
✅ Donated more than 33,887,227 loads of laundry detergent to those in need.
✅ Grown multiple premium subscription boxes to multi-million dollar businesses.
✅ Written content has been read by more than 100,000,000 readers.

Connect: 
Facebook https://m.facebook.com/theryemckenzie/
Twitter: @RyeMcKenzie

About Tru Earth
Tru Earth® based in Vancouver, Canada is a leading eco-friendly household product company committed to eliminating plastic from landfills and oceans. At its core, you’ll discover that Tru Earth, is actually a movement (#TruEarthMovement™). The Tru Earth team joins more than a quarter million equally committed people in more than 50 countries to combat the 645 billion plastic household product containers dumped in landfills and oceans globally each year. 

Our customers are #TruChangeMakers™, disrupting the multi-billion-dollar household product industry, reducing carbon emissions by up to 94% and caring for the health of the planet and their families. 

Tru Earth’s suite of products and planned launches come with our pledge to provide #TruChangeMakers with laundry, bathroom and kitchen products they need to make a substantial impact on the health of our world. To do ourpart, we promise to match all first-time subscriptions by donating to families in need across the globe. Because at Tru Earth, we know many small hinges can swing very, very big doors.

Ryan Mckenzie

The average DTC brand spends 6+ months trying to expand into Canada.

Canada isn’t harder. It’s because they’re stuck solving 47 small problems sequentially, instead of all at once:

Customs documentation. Carrier relationships. Compliance research. Tax registration. Warehouse vetting. Duty calculations. Returns processing.

Each one takes 1-2 weeks to figure out. None of them compounds. 

By month 4, you've burned cash and momentum learning things a 3PL partner already knows.

We built Breakthrough Fulfillment to solve all of these simultaneously, in 2 weeks. 

What we do:

- Take the hassle out of cross-border logistics. We handle imports and fulfillment from start to finish, so you never touch customs paperwork.
- Get your products to major Canadian cities the next day, keeping customers happy and your carts full.
- Navigate compliance, taxes, and paperwork effortlessly with our expert guidance. We know the regulations, so you don't have to learn them.
- Skip the middleman. Work directly with decision-makers for fast answers and smooth operations, not ticket systems.

We'll have you live in Canada within 2 weeks, ready to test, scale, and start selling.

You test Canada while competitors are still on month 2 of compliance research.

See how we're helping brands collapse months of operational overhead:

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www.breakthrough.studio

Cut Shipping Costs by 68% and Get Next-Day Delivery Across Canada | Premier 3PL Services

Co-Founder Tru Earth | Saving the planet, one strip at a time.

This guy is quietly killing the $500B+ SEO industry with an AI tool called Meridian.

Some are calling it “the Google Analytics of ChatGPT.”

Here’s why ignoring Meridian right now would be a HUGE a mistake:

People aren’t Googling anymore. They’re asking AI.

And they get one answer not 10 blue links.

That single shift just nuked traditional SEO.

The CTO of hubspot admitted it: “Google’s 10 blue links are dying. If you’re not showing up in ChatGPT answers, you’re invisible.”

This is where Meridian comes in.

Meridian shows you:

- If AI recommends your brand

- When it recommends competitors instead

- Why you’re missing from answers

Paid ads rent attention. Classic SEO built an asset.

Now AI answers decide existence.

→ Reddit dropped 15% because their SEO doesn’t matter anymore

→ Monday. com lost 40% of its market cap in a month too

I’m going to leave a link to try Meridian here: Trymeridian.com

P.S. I'm giving away the world's first AI visibility tracker. This shows you exactly how you're ranking In AI search. 

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

And yes, I am a proud Meridian Partner on this launch.

For ecom founders spending $50K+ a month on Meta and looking to scale from $1M to $10M+:

I’m opening up space for 1 more brand for hands-on ad guidance + growth strategy.

We’ll work together to:

- Dive into your campaigns and fix what’s not working
- Optimize creative, targeting, and funnels so every dollar counts
- Map out a clear plan to scale ad spend without wasting money
- Catch up weekly (or bi-weekly if that works better) with actionable next steps

If this sounds like it could help, DM me and we’ll see if it’s a fit.

I get out of the shower dripping wet and grab my phone.

Water pooling under me. Don't care.

I voice note the entire messaging strategy that just appeared in my head.

Brad's wife's foster sibling had invested in this laundry detergent patent. They offered it to us.

We tried the product. It was good.

But we kept thinking there's no way such an inexpensive product could work with media buying. The margins can't carry paid acquisition.

We liked it. Thought maybe subscription might help. Weren't convinced.

So we sat on it.

Then one Tuesday in the shower, it happened.

The entire messaging.

One second I'm standing there with shampoo in my hair, next second I can see everything clearly.

How we position the brand. The benefits. The environmental angle. The subscription psychology. Everything.

That shower moment became the messaging for Tru Earth for the first four years.

Not four months. Four YEARS.

Breakthrough moments don't happen when you're forcing them.

Your subconscious works on problems even when you're not at a desk strategizing.

If you're stuck on your messaging right now, spinning your wheels...

Maybe you don't need another framework.

Maybe you just need to let your brain do what it already knows how to do.

Stop forcing it. Let it simmer.

When it clicks, don't let it slip away.

Voice note that sh*t immediately, no matter where you are.

Email-only retention stops scaling at a certain revenue threshold.

You’re doing $500K-$2M, email is working “fine,” but your repeat purchase rate’s barely moved in 6 months.

And you’re “solving” for growth by dumping more into acquisition instead of fixing retention.

You know SMS works.

The problem is, you’re worried about:

- Managing another channel when you’re already stretched thin
- Compliance (getting sued for text spam)
- Coming off as desperate or annoying
- Whether YOUR customers will actually respond

But your worries don’t add up, operators:

SMS subscribers convert 4-10x higher than email-only subscribers.

If you’re doing $1M+ and not running integrated SMS, you’re probably leaving $150K-$300K on the table annually.

And January makes this worse.

Your email list just survived Q4. It’s exhausted. Opens are down, fatigue is real.

The channel you’re ignoring while your email list burns out has 98% open rates and gets read within 3 minutes.

This is where Omnisend makes sense for operators at scale.

It’s email + SMS in one platform. Not two disconnected tools. Unified flows, segments, and reporting.

And if you’re at $250K+/mo, their Personal Migration Partner Program handles the move (compliance setup, flow migration, list transfer) so you’re not figuring this all out at midnight.

Omnisend’s data shows their US merchants average $68 in revenue for every $1 spent.

You already know SMS works.

Do you know what another quarter of delay is costing you?

If you’re ready to stop leaving revenue on the table, start here:

https://lnkd.in/dddMBgx8 

Use code RYAN30 for 30% off your first 3 months.

If you’re at $250K+/month, ask about the Personal Migration Partner Program and let them handle the migration.

omnisend.com

Recommended by Ryan McKenzie

What gets you to 7 figures is completely different than what gets you to 8.

At 7 figures, you can brute force growth. Throw more budget at ads. Work harder. Grind through problems.

At 8 figures, that breaks. You hit a wall where working harder just burns cash faster.

That shift is not about effort and feeling productive. It’s about systems, creative strategy, and which levers actually move the business.

I’ve taken brands through this transition. I know where the wall shows up and what it takes to break through. 

I’m opening up 1 spot for hands-on ad guidance + growth strategy.

We focus on:

- Ad strategy and media buying at scale 
- Creative optimization (maintain performance as you scale spend)
- Operational and strategic changes
- Dive into your campaigns, audit and fix what's not working
- Weekly (or bi-weekly) calls with actionable next steps

This isn't an agency thing. It's boutique coaching with someone who's scaled brands through the exact problems you're facing.

If you’re spending $50K+ a month on Meta, doing $1-5M in revenue and looking to make that jump, DM me and we’ll see if it’s a fit.

There was a time in my life where I genuinely believed I’d screwed things up so badly there was no way back.

I’d be driving down the road sometimes just screaming at the top of my lungs.

I had no idea how to get myself out of this hole.

I thought my career was over.

Not "this is tough" over... Like, this is it. I peaked at 32. I'll never see those numbers again. No path forward.

That's where I was in 2012, 2013.

We’d built this ringtone subscription business ranked number one on Google.

Business was pumping.

Then it collapsed, pretty much overnight. 

Everything we'd built for a decade... poof. And I had anchors everywhere.

A house I just bought. A condo I still owned. An expensive car lease.

The business that was supposed to carry this was now dead. We had money saved to pay our taxes, so we did what desperate people do: made a desperate decision.

We invested it into this forex thing that was paying 1% per week. It was registered with the Canadian Securities Commission, so we thought it made sense.

Six months later, lost that too.

All the money we owed the government, gone.

They sent a bailiff to my house to take my truck.

I wasn't home, my wife answered the door.

She had no idea any of this was going on...

I was hiding the collapse from everyone. Her. My kids. Anyone who asked how things were going.

"Yeah, things are good. Busy, you know."

Meanwhile, driving down the road screaming.

When you're in it, you don't think you're getting out. You don't think you'll be able to rebuild.,The worst part wasn't losing money or having debt…

It was the certainty that I'd already had my one shot.

I'd built something once, watched it collapse, and now I was done.

Over.

Peaked at 32 and didn't even know it was happening.

If you're reading this and you're quietly afraid you've already peaked...

If your business is struggling and you're wondering if you'll ever get back up...

If you're in the car fighting the urge to scream because you can't see a way out...

I get it.

I don’t have some corny, reassuring guru advice.

I'm not gonna tell you "just keep grinding" or "everything happens for a reason."

When you're in the hole, the hole is real.

The debt is real. The fear is real. The car screaming is real.

What I will tell you is, I was wrong.

I was wrong about it being over.

I was wrong about peaking at 32 and never seeing those numbers again.

But I couldn't see that when I was in it.

Nobody can.

AI is leveling the playing field the same way the internet did.

Last night before bed, I was having AI research futures for the S&P, gold, and Nasdaq so I could understand what the market would do this morning. The tools are genuinely insane.

But do not trust everything it outputs, or you’re falling behind.

Because sometimes it's completely full of sh*t.

I was at a hockey game Saturday. Asked ChatGPT if they'd traded a player to another team, mentioned the local team's name.

It told me yes. Said Kevin Bieska played for the Express.

I pushed back. "I don't think that's true. And I meant Cole Bieska, not Kevin. Kevin's the dad."
It checked again. "You're right."

That's not even a complicated thing to know. But it hallucinated anyway.

So you need judgment. You need to be able to evaluate accuracy. Using AI for research means you have to be able to assess whether it's right. Maybe it's not even you doing the evaluation, maybe you find another tool to verify. 

But you can't just blindly trust the output.

And I think that means we're still going to need good people.

Your judgment as a leader shifts. Because if AI is gobbling up jobs, there should hypothetically be way more people looking for work. The skill becomes finding people who are actually hungry and self-motivated. People who want to show up and make things happen.

How do you build a team that can leverage these tools to get 10x the output?

If every person now has access to 100x the output potential, how do you find the people who can actually GET that from these tools? Who are hungry, eager, and do good work?

I think we're going to move away from people for a bit. Then we're going to realize we still need them.

Not everyone's a unicorn. So the game becomes finding unicorns.

What separates founders still growing after 3 years?

It’s not what they ADD.

What they CUT:

What Healthy Founders STOP Doing

I read a stat recently that the latest AI models have an IQ around 160.

When you're building workflows and automation, you're essentially working with someone brilliant.

But even at 160 IQ, it doesn't fully understand what you're thinking or the exact output you want.

You plan something that seems perfect. You build it. Then you sit there trying to figure out how to actually use it.

That gap between planning and execution is where AI projects stall out.

Workflows are multi-step and deterministic. You decide all the steps, and the AI executes different things along the way.

The logic it uses at each step needs to be evaluated. Optimized. Like CRO, but for AI outputs.

• You create a rubric
• You have a scoring mechanism for evaluating whether the output is good
• You can let the LLM decide initially, but you still need someone with deep domain knowledge to go through each step and verify the output is actually right

Not just "right enough." Actually right.

LLMs are trained on massive datasets. Feed them domain-specific information, but you still need someone evaluating multiple run-throughs. You'll get output that seems fine but isn't optimized.

And there's always room to optimize.

Yes, you need fewer people. But you still need people.

Smart operators build these systems, optimize them, then move on to the next thing.

The future is about doing different work, not less.

More decision-making. Less execution.

Planning becomes critical when you're using AI to execute those plans, because the quality of your inputs directly determines the quality of your outputs.

The person running the business still controls the inputs.

Learning how to give clear instructions and plan effectively is one of the valuable skillsets you can develop right now.

Your static ads start with claims so generic they might as well be invisible.

"This helps you save time and money."

Great. So does everything else. 

A feature dressed up as a benefit is not a message. And your audience has heard it a thousand times before.

You don’t need more claims or flashier features. Speak to what your avatar actually wants.

Saving time isn't the goal. It's what they DO with that time that matters.

Do they want to stop reviewing data at midnight and actually see their kids before bed? Get out of the weeds so they can think strategically again? Stop burning hours on tasks that don't move the needle?

You have to tell them the end state.

Instead of "save time and money," try: "Stop spending 10 hours a week buried in spreadsheets and start showing up to the moments that actually matter."

Same core benefit. But now it's specific. Now it connects.

The process:

• Research your avatar
• Understand what they actually want beyond surface-level efficiency
• Build a message template
• Test variations with different end states
• See which one resonates

The ad that works is the one that resonates with the person reading it.

When I was deep in the Tru Earth build, my calendar was open. People could grab me whenever.

I thought that was leadership. Maybe you can relate.

Be available. Be the person people come to.

Turns out, that was just lazy management.

My team would bring me problems. I'd solve them. Fast. Done. But I was becoming everyone's shortcut, not their leader.

The boundary that felt the most uncomfortable: Tuesdays only.

I batch all my coaching calls on one day now. The rest of the week stays open for deep work. 

When I first implemented it, I felt like an asshole. People would want to talk, and I'd say "Let's get it on the calendar for Tuesday."

But what actually happened surprised me:

My team started solving problems before bringing them to me.

I introduced Dan Martell's 3-1-1 system: if you're bringing me a problem, you need three potential solutions and the one you recommend. No problem shows up without options attached.

That forced agency. It forced thinking and ownership.

And honestly, I don't love being on the phone. I like my creative blocks. I like spending three hours thinking through a framework without interruptions.

Protecting that time wasn't selfish. It was the most generous thing I could've done.

Because when I was always available, I was teaching them they couldn't make decisions without me.

Now they make calls. They own outcomes. And when we do connect on Tuesdays, we're solving the right things instead of staying stuck on a hamster wheel of urgency.

Lazy management always feels like you’re doing more.

But constant availability creates dependency, not leadership.

AI isn’t going to just show up and make everything super easy.

It'll make some things super easy. It'll make some jobs obsolete.

But if you're the one controlling it, there's a lot to learn about how to communicate with AI to produce the results you actually want, how to build systems that work in practice, and how to troubleshoot when they break.

You have to think differently.

It's like trying to do ballet instead of bodybuilding.

Both require muscles. Both are athletes. But bodybuilding muscles aren't going to be great for ballet, and ballet muscles probably aren't good enough for bodybuilding.

They're just good at different things.

Operators of the future look different because their responsibilities are different.

They're learning how to do different things. Troubleshooting systems more than what they're doing now. The actual work changes. The muscles you need change.

I've built enough AI tools in the last year to know this firsthand.

Sometimes you plan something, execute it, and realize it's actually less efficient than just doing it by hand. I've built entire systems and thought "this is actually less efficient by the time I do all this stuff. I can just build a Claude project instead of this gigantic automated mess of Frankenstein parts."

That's the learning curve.

Context matters. But putting it to use is often different than planning it. You'll build something and realize you need to review a step before moving to the next one, or that the sequence doesn't match how you actually work.

Critical thinking becomes more important, not less.

Understanding how to think about problems differently. Connecting the dots on what you want, building it to see it, then iterating when you realize there's a more efficient path.

Your job changes. How you think about problems changes.

The operators who figure that out first get real leverage from these tools instead of just adding complexity.

I watched a brand lose thousands in Canadian LTV because customers kept getting hit with surprise customs fees. 

That’s the hidden cost of shipping to Canada from U.S. fulfillment centers. 

Most U.S. brands know Canada is sitting there as an easy expansion market, but they hit the same logistics wall: surprise duty bills, 2-week shipping times, and compliance paperwork that burns months. 

We built Breakthrough Fulfillment to solve the exact problems I ran into as a CMO scaling Tru Earth across North America.

Here’s what we handle so you can focus on selling:

- Cross-border logistics without the customer service nightmare. (We manage imports, duty, tariffs, and compliance. Your customers never see surprise fees at the door.
- Next-day delivery to Toronto, Vancouver, and major Canadian cities. We freight forward strategically, then drop into local post networks. Your customers get orders in 1-2 days, not 2+ weeks. 
- Direct access to the people who actually make decisions. No account manager layer. You work directly with me and my business partner for same-day problem solving.
- Live in Canada in under 2 weeks. No 6-month compliance learning curve, no endless onboarding calls.

See how we're helping U.S. brands make Canadian expansion as smooth as possible:

https://lnkd.in/gEfxQkee

If you're a brand doing $500K+ and ready to test Canadian expansion without the logistics headache, comment "INTERESTED" below and I'll send you our onboarding breakdown.

Meta rebuilt their ad system around these massive foundation models, and most people think that means UGC won.

They’re wrong.

Statics are benefiting more than anyone expected, but not because of the designs like you think. 

Gem and Lattice can now track the full customer journey and identify who your creative targets are before the hook even loads. The system builds familiarity by orchestrating multiple touchpoints strategically, not just showing the same ad over and over.

Which means statics finally win on what they’re actually good at: creating moments.

There’s this old pickup artist technique called “bouncing”.

The idea is that your brain identifies trust through diversified experiences over time. Or you can shortcut it by creating multiple distinct moments in a short window.

So they’d meet you at the bar, ignore you, make you wonder why. Then insult you playfully. Then take you somewhere for a crazy show you’ve never had. Then the dance floor. Then outside for wine. 

Four completely different moments in 30 minutes.

Your brain processes that as familiarity. As trust.

Ads work the same way.

If someone only sees two of your ads and they’re always the same, you’re creating exposure but you’re not creating moments. Exposure is like seeing the guy who wears the same shirt to the bar every week. You’ve seen him 50 times, but nothing ever happens.

Creative diversity is about creating opportunities for distinct experiences with your brand in different settings.

Recently I uploaded 100 static ads. Same Persona, slightly different angles and messaging, a couple different jobs to be done.

Cut our CPAs in half.

Not because the designs were better. Because the system could finally orchestrate those moments at scale. The purchases from videos improved a little, but the account-wide CPA dropped significantly because these multiple creatives were working together.

Statics give you controlled variation. You control every variable. Faster feedback loops. More reliable testing.

The designs didn’t change.

How the system evaluates them did.

If you’re only testing two hero ads hoping they carry your account, you’re asking one person in one outfit to do all the work.

The algorithm got smarter. That doesn’t mean louder creative wins.

It means moments beat exposure, and the system can finally orchestrate them at scale.

The same brain that built Tru Earth almost bankrupted me twice.

Same impulsivity, same inability to pause before acting.

I used to keep this running list in my head of all the ways my brain was broken.

The same impulsivity that let me see Tru Earth's entire positioning in a single shower... bought 10,000 bottles of collagen on a whim.

Bottles I couldn't sell because I didn't check if I could actually sell supplements in Canada. 15 months of warehouse fees, just bleeding money.

Businesses I'd start when I was fired up, then abandon when the grind set in because I couldn't focus.

Midnight emails I'd send when I was pissed off. By morning, I wouldn't even care but the damage was done.

For the longest time, it felt like a curse.

What shifted?

I stopped trying to be a “disciplined” person. That sh*t doesn't work when your brain is wired differently. I started treating my brain like a high-performance engine that just needs different fuel.

When I get excited about something now, I write it down. All the pros, all the cons. Then I wait 24 hours.

If I still think it's brilliant the next morning, then maybe it's worth doing.

I ask operators who’ve been there. They understand the difference between a real opportunity and dopamine chasing.

When overwhelm hits, I dump everything on paper. Prioritize. Knock off the easy wins. The tactile act of crossing things off? That's dopamine I can actually use.

Here's what most people don't get about brains like mine:

The same brain that can't sit through a boring meeting can hyperfocus for 12 hours straight on something interesting.

The same impulsivity that makes bad decisions lets you act fast when everyone else is still analyzing.

The same restlessness that makes you chase new ideas keeps you from settling for mediocre.

You're not broken. You're just wired differently.

The collagen thing taught me cooling-off periods.

The midnight emails taught me my first reaction isn't always my best reaction.

The overwhelm taught me how to finish things instead of starting fifty projects and abandoning them all.

I don't try to fix my ADHD anymore.

I just learned to drive it better.

Most brands test hooks the same way:

Write 20 different hooks. Test them all. See which ones get the best hook rate and CTR. Scale the winners. Repeat until something breaks.

But if you’re still doing that, you’re testing backwards.

Because the algorithm isn’t just looking at your hook rate now.

Gem changed everything.

Gem is Meta’s creative brain. It’s the LLM analyzing who your creative targets are and why it’s working. It’s tracking Persona fit, jobs to be done, and angle resonance across the entire customer journey.

All of this is being identified before you hook even loads.

Which means you're optimizing for the last thing the system evaluates.

Hook rate, CPA, CTR are great indicators. Trash starting points.

Today’s winners validate who it's for, what job they think needs done, and what belief connects them to the offer.

Then they write hooks around what's already working.

Stop testing backwards.

If you’ve ever been taken advantage of...

That sh*t is not for the faint of heart.

It’s why you see entrepreneurs all over social media talking about the importance of being ruthless.

But here’s what they don’t talk about:

Running ads for a CPG brand is financial russian roulette. 

You can scale to $100K+/mo in spend then realize you were wrong. 

Facebook says 3.2x ROAS. 
Google says ROAS is 2.8x. 

And you’ve got ZERO clue if you’re actually profitable or not. 

Not to mention attribution...

→ Customer sees an ad on Instagram. 
→ They google your brand name. 
→ Click on the Google ad.
→ Buy on your site. 

Both platforms claim the sale and you pay for the same sale twice. 

Up until now, there’s been no “simple” way to solve this...

But when a platform called Iris Finance recently reached out to me to partner on a post, I knew it was solved. 

They automatically pinpoint where the sale came from. 

And reconcile the data so you’re never worried about being double-charged. 

I’ve used it for 2 weeks now and it’s been super solid. 

If you want to get a demo you can DM me and I’ll send you the link.

Founder & CEO surge.agency l Founder Nord Media | Growth Marketing for 6-9 figure eCommerce brands. Sharing things I learn along the way.

A little more about me for all of my current & soon to be followers 🤝

This is where I impress you right!? First off - thank you for visiting my profile, following me and joining me through this wild experience while I try to figure shit out.

It’s absolutely crazy to me how many different people have followed me over the last year and have engaged with my content + reached out to build friendships. I love connecting with new people and learning their stories.

You may not know me officially yet but – maybe you’ve seen me around or you heard about me.
So now… a little more about me 🤷‍♂️

👋 I’m Kody - a barely “C” student who struggled throughout high-school and college but managed to scrape by after 6 long years in college. I could never figure out what I wanted to do or what I wanted to be when I grew up (still haven’t lol).

I stumbled into the realm of marketing around 8 or 9 years ago and have been figuring out what I like and what I’m good at. I’ve worked as a marketing specialist, retention manager, growth marketer, growth manager, head of growth and now agency / brand owner.

During my “free” time I enjoy going to the movies, playing video games or hanging with my wife (Ali) & dog (Goose).

A little about my career and my accomplishments 👇

Years 1 & 2: Marketing specialist (Very basic stuff)

Years 3 & 4: Retention Manager - Generated over $400M in email revenue and ran a team of 30 🤯

Years 4 & 5: Growth Marketer / Growth Manager (Directly Managed $15M in ad-spend and grew 2 brands roughly 400% year over year)

Year 6 → Now: Head of Growth → Agency Owner → Brand Owner (Have in total directly managed over $200M in ad-spend, generated $650M+ in email revenue and have grown 7 brands into 9 figures, 17 into 8 figures)

+ many more into 6/7 figures annually. Was all of this where I thought I would be? Absolutely not… not even close lol… I always say I was able to combine a lot of luck with a lot of hard work and work ethic to achieve the results you see today.

So why am I sharing so much now? I’ve come to enjoy sharing my learnings and helping others who want to grow their business, start a brand, agency or improve their career.

Back in October 2023 I decided to start focusing on building a personal brand on Twitter / LinkedIn / Instagram and in January 2024 this all compounded and built Nord Media.

Subscribe here 👉  http://nordmedia.com/newsletter

Kody N.

Marketing rule no one wants to hear:

The easier you make it to say “yes,” the faster you grow.

That means:
• Fewer clicks
• Fewer barriers
• Fewer decisions
Customers want clarity.

If they have to think too hard, they bounce.

Kody Nordquist

Founder of Nord Media | Performance Marketing Agency for 7 & 8-figure eCom brands

Every marketer wants a breakthrough.

Here’s what they usually need instead:

• To tighten the copy
• To sharpen the CTA
• To simplify the funnel
• To remove the distractions
• To say what they really mean

You need to stop overcomplicating what should be obvious.

Social Media Marketing Certification Course

Content Marketing

Email Marketing

Inbound Marketing

Digital Marketing 

HubSpot Marketing Software

Growth Marketing Agency for 7 & 8-figure eCom brands. Focused on driving profitable growth at scale with proven systems and strategies. Currently managing $5M+ in monthly ad-spend for brands.

Nord Media is a growth agency that helps 7-9 figure eCom brands scale.

Founder & Head of Growth

Fuel Your Brand with Ready-to-Launch Creative Templates.

Partner (Acquired)

Surge Marketing is a full-service Growth Marketing Agency.

Founder (Acquired)

Key Responsibilities:

Campaign Strategy and Execution: Develop and execute paid media strategies to drive brand awareness, customer acquisition, and retention. Utilize data-driven insights to optimize campaigns and maximize ROI.

Channel Management: Oversee advertising campaigns across platforms such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other relevant channels. Monitor performance and adjust strategies to meet objectives.

Budget Management: Manage advertising budgets effectively to achieve desired outcomes while maintaining cost-efficiency. Track and report on campaign performance, providing insights for continuous improvement.

Audience Targeting: Utilize advanced targeting capabilities to reach relevant audiences and drive engagement. Implement A/B testing strategies to optimize ad creative, messaging, and targeting parameters.

Partnership Collaboration: Collaborate with internal teams and external partners to align paid media efforts with overall marketing initiatives. Coordinate with creative teams to develop compelling ad content that resonates with our target audience.

Performance Analysis and Reporting: Analyze campaign performance metrics, including CTR, CPA, ROAS, and conversion rates. Generate regular reports to communicate insights and make data-driven recommendations for future campaigns.

Achievements:

Increased year over year subscription growth by 400%.
Improved campaign efficiency through rigorous A/B testing and optimization strategies, leading to a 65% reduction in cost per acquisition.
Implemented geo-targeting tactics that resulted in business developmental learnings that drove incremental lift in key states for growth and new business avenues.

Paid Media Manager

Effectively manage ($5M+ Annual) Digital Advertising budget across multiple paid media and SEM channels
Drive an effective ROAS and MER to enable rapid business growth while maintaining profitability
Grow business revenue by 120% YoY while also increasing profitability
Developed daily/quarterly metric growth reporting standards, rolling up directly to CEO 
Created brand strategy advertising tactics and deployment 
Develop and implement Digital Advertising campaigns to increase brand awareness, website traffic and drive sales
Lead content team to develop, test and improve content structure and funnels to guide customers from acquisition to conversion
Implement Lean Management and standards of work for self and teams to improve efficiency
Develop Email and SMS marketing efforts and scaled program 3000-->50,000 active subscribers in first 3 months
Improve Email & SMS marketing strategy and create unique subscriber growth and experiences
Develop a customer data-driven marketing funnel across all digital marketing avenues
Develop story-driven marketing campaigns to convey the brand and values effectively
Track and measure the performance of all digital marketing channels and propose optimization initiatives to maximize marketing ROAS
Create new marketing channels to test creative and adaptive marketing techniques

Director of Growth

Grew Enthusiast Enterprises Communications division from 3 people with $12.8M in annual revenue to 19 people and nearly $120M in annual revenue.
Oversaw the Email Strategy, SMS Marketing, Social Media, Marketing Automation & Copywriting teams with a growth expectation of 50% Y/Y.
Developed a calendar of content for all channels focused on product development and growth.
Oversaw the creation and distribution of campaign strategy aimed at promoting various sales and branding initiatives for the organization.
Created a strong insight customer use and feedback of products via NPS surveys and post-purchase follow-up.
Developed strategic planning between Social Media, Digital Advertising, Graphic Design and Communications to unify our brand messaging and improve customer perception of our brand & products.
Integrated product marketing strategies and created optimized marketing initiatives with integrated A/B testing and relevant KPI tracking.  
Improved the customer life cycle and retention by providing value to the customer through unique content and closing all gaps where a customer may become lost during their purchase process.
Created and managed revenue targets and budget expenses to ensure profitability growth.

Growth Marketing Manager

Developed digital marketing strategy by studying economic indicators, tracking changes in supply and demand, identifying customers and their current and future needs, and monitoring the competition.
Planned and executed on all web, SEO/SEM, database marketing, email, SMS, social media, and display advertising campaigns.
Developed and maintained a social media presence in Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. 
Identified short-term and long-range issues that must be addressed and developed a plan of action around these.
Measured and report performance of all digital marketing campaigns and assesses against goals (ROI and KPIs).
Optimized performance of campaigns and initiatives by utilizing analytical toolkits to identify underperforming areas.
Developed A/B test structure to optimize flow and conversion of the customer journey.
Collaborates with internal teams & external to enhance LTV of customers and identify gaps on a customer's lifecycle
Utilizes strong analytical ability to evaluate end-to-end customer experience across multiple channels and customer touch points.
Identified critical conversion points and drop off points and optimizes user funnels.

Sell value instead of a product or service.

What value can you provide someone? If it’s greater than your cost - it’s easy to sell.

If not — improve your value to match the rate you want to charge.

If you want to instantly improve your marketing, stop saying:
“I want people to see this.”

Start saying:
“I want people to feel this.”

Marketing, sales, and growth are emotional.

Once you get that, the copy writes itself.

More brands need to fundamentally understand that Meta ads and CPMs are going to get more expensive every year. CPMs across our portfolio went up an average of 22% year over year.

Unless you're drastically improving your margins every year you need to find ways to make improvements outside of that.

AOV / LTV / Retention / Profit per visitor / CVR

You need to convert more people for less and have those people stay long-term. 

Brands who are simply trying to replicate the success they've have will end up falling behind and likely go out of business slowly over time.

This “stack” is missing a crucial step. We’re all talking about how useful AI tools are for scaling production, but you still need a solid, human strategy and a creative team to execute core ideas.

The biggest thing you want to avoid is losing the ability to connect with people. 

People want to buy from people. AI can help you move faster, but it can’t replace the human connection that actually converts.

One of the best funnels we’re using to find winning creatives in is posting daily content 2-4 times a day.

Anything that is marginally good performance wise is being boosted for organic growth and also being ran as an ad.

Brands are growing their follower count (social proof) and the ads have a much higher hit rate on paid (15-18% on average).

Most ecom brands think profit shows up after revenue.

Scale first, fix margins later, and clean it up “once we’re bigger.”

That mindset is why so many brands grow and still feel broke.

Revenue-first thinking feels productive, but it’s also how you build a business that looks successful on paper and struggles in reality.​

Why Profit Gets Ignored

Revenue is loud.

It’s easy to track, easy to celebrate, and easy to post about.

Profit is quieter.

It hides inside decisions most founders never slow down to examine.

That’s why so many brands chase topline growth while margins quietly erode underneath them.

This happens when growth is treated as a goal instead of a system.

The Core Truth Most People Miss

Profit isn’t something you hope for at scale. It’s something you engineer upstream.

If profit only appears when ads are cheap, Q4 hits, or a platform algorithm smiles on you, the business isn’t stable, it’s lucky.

The best in the game design margins intentionally.

Revenue vs. Profit

Revenue answers one question: “How much did we sell?”

Profit answers a harder one: “How much did we keep after every decision we made?”

Those decisions compound daily.

Offer structure, traffic mix, fulfillment choices, creative strategy, and retention design must all be considered.

None of these live inside a revenue number, but all of them determine profit.

The eCom Profit Equation (Simplified)

At a high level, profit is driven by three forces working together:

• How efficiently you acquire customers.

• How much value each customer generates.

• How much friction exists between sale and fulfillment.

Most brands only optimize the first one, that’s the mistake.

Where Profit Is Actually Won or Lost

Profit collapses because marginal decisions stack up unnoticed.

• Returns quietly increase.

• Shipping costs creep higher

• Discounts become permanent

• Creative costs rise without corresponding lift.

• Paid traffic replaces organic and owned channels.

None of these kill a business alone, but unfortunately, together, they drain it.

The Margin Levers Most Brands Ignore

The biggest profit levers are unsexy and operational.

They’re often ignored because they don’t feel like “growth.”

Things like tightening offer structure so discounts don’t become the default.

• Designing bundles that increase AOV without increasing fulfillment cost.

• Auditing shipping zones and packaging decisions that quietly eat margin.

• Using post-purchase flows to raise LTV instead of spending more on acquisition.

Small changes here compound faster than chasing more traffic.

Final Thought

Revenue is a scoreboard, profit is the game.

If profit only shows up when everything goes right, the business is fragile.

Engineer margins deliberately, design profit upstream, and let revenue follow a system that actually holds.

That’s how real ecom businesses last.

Highly suggest you check this out if you have any type of content needs and/or any backfilled content log.

Seems like such an easy way to bring new life to existing creative and find perfect fit for that perfect ad you’ve been trying to make.

Founder at Videowise — The Video Commerce Powerhouse. Helping 4,000+ brands & retailers increase conversion rates by up to 35% and turn video into real revenue. Reputation-first mindset, proven by customer results.

Creative & growth teams are still scrubbing through hours of video to find the right moments.

The hook.
The product shot.
The one line that actually converts.
That’s not creative work.
That’s wasted time.

Today, we’re launching Videowise Clips.

Clips uses AI to understand every frame of your videos and automatically turn videos into structured, ready-to-use clips - instantly, at scale, with human-level precision.

No video duration limit.
No timelines.
No exports.
No folders.

What actually changes 👇
- Videos are automatically split into real moments: hooks, product shots, testimonials, CTAs, custom defined for your business.
- Every clip is intelligently labeled and organized however you configure our AI.
- You use natural language search your entire video library to find anything in just seconds.

The impact:
→ ~80% less manual video work
→ 10× faster clip creation
→ Creative output without creative burnout

This isn’t about editing faster.

It’s about structuring creative output at AI scale so video is usable, searchable, and activation-ready across ads, PDPs, email, and social.

With Clips, shoppable video, live shopping, creator network and AI-powered intelligence, Videowise is becoming the video commerce powerhouse.

👇 Giveaway + free access

Comment "VIDEOWISE" for:

→ A 30-day free trial of Videowise Clips
+ A chance to win a pair of AirPods Max 🎧
(You’ll need new headphones anyway - while Clips does the work for you.) 😎 

Repost with your own take - support from this community genuinely means a lot to me 🤍

Your number 1 job when running ads, sending emails, posting on social is to drive a click.

It’s not to sell your product or service.

It’s simply get them to click.

Let your landing page sell your product…

To many brands try to hard to sell right away that they lose the click.

People can’t buy if they don’t click.

Focus on what matters.

Everyone’s buzzing about it, but all this Moltbot business (previously known as ClawdBot) is WAY overhyped. 

Social concerns aside, we’ve been rushing to automate everything recently, and I’m watching brands and businesses automate themselves straight into irrelevance because of it.

You can automate:
→ Reporting & dashboards
→ Bid adjustments within set parameters
→ Basic customer service FAQs
→ Inventory alerts & reordering
→ Email sequences (once proven)

But you can’t expect to truly automate:
→ Creative strategy decisions
→ Client relationships & communication
→ New campaign launches
→ Offer positioning
→ Anything requiring context you can't codify

The "automate everything" crowd has completely lost sight of how much value there is in real connection. Do you really expect to make an automated “task” out of connecting with other human beings?

AI automation is an essential tool for workflow in the modern world, but it can’t build and nurture the real relationships that are going to make your business skyrocket. 

Automate the busywork, but protect the connections.

Almost all successful entrepreneurs I know have found their outlet.

For some people it’s cars, for others it’s TV, some is golfing, some is working out, others surfing etc…

It doesn’t matter what your outlet is - just that you can disconnect and find enjoyment in it.

My outlets are video games and lifting weights. It’s what I can do to remove myself from the stress of entrepreneurship for a brief time period.

You need some sort of outlet to be able to manage to stress of doing the hard work that’s required to be successful.

Most agency owners think success comes from better strategy or better execution.

It doesn’t.

99% of running a great agency is managing people and expectations.

Almost every agency can do the work. That’s table stakes.

What separates the ones that last is how well they handle humans, how they hire, grow, retain talent, and how clearly they communicate with clients.

The most important conversations usually aren’t about performance dashboards or weekly metrics.

They’re about context. Trust. Alignment.

Clients aren’t just numbers on a report. These businesses support families, both theirs and their employees’. When you forget that, relationships break fast.

Being a good agency operator is really about being a good person.

If client retention is a problem, that’s where I’d start looking.

This was a challenge that agency owners were battling before Whop implemented their dispute fighter. 

You would:
- Close a $3K/month retainer with a new client.
- Get ghosted by the client after 45 days.
- Then get a dispute for the charge. 

Suddenly you're out the full $3,000, a $25+ chargeback fee, AND the ding on your processor reputation.

It’s great that platforms are doing this now, but it’s shocking how few agencies had their own infrastructure in place to fight this. They would just accept the loss and keep selling. 

If you want to sell sustainably, your dispute systems are every bit as important as your sales and client acquisition.

Biggest shift we've seen from an creative perspective over the last 6 months is a shift from volume --> unique concept identity.

Previous volume would carry 90% of accounts into positive growth performance.

But something changed in August / September and slowly we've been seeing a shift towards volume but with net new concept. Iterations really don't matter much anymore.

Put a stronger focus / emphasis into unique creative concepts / angles and less focus on iterations + volume.

It can take for this approach to dynamically adjust in your creative flow - but once it does it's incredibly powerful at creating profitable growth.

Most brands treat “brand” like decoration.

Colors, fonts, or a silly mood board someone approved once and never revisited.

Then they wonder why performance gets more expensive every quarter.

This happens when brand is viewed as aesthetic instead of infrastructure.​

The Real Problem

When CAC rises, most founders look for tactical fixes.

New ads, angles, audiences, and platforms.

What they rarely look at is trust, and trust is the invisible variable inside every performance metric you care about.

The Core Truth

Brand is not a nice-to-have, it’s a performance lever.

It determines how much friction exists before a customer clicks, buys, returns, or comes back again.

Strong brand lowers CAC because people hesitate less, and it raises LTV because people stay longer.

Why Performance Suffers Without Brand

When a brand is weak, ads have to do all the work.

They must convince, reassure, and overcome doubt in seconds.

That’s expensive.

When a brand is strong, ads don’t persuade as hard. They remind, reinforce, and validate something the customer already feels.

This is why two brands can run similar offers to similar audiences and see wildly different results.

One is selling, the other is confirming.

Trust Is the Multiplier

Trust compresses decision time.

Customers don’t need to re-evaluate you every time they see an ad or email, they already know what you stand for and what to expect.

That compression shows up everywhere.

Higher CTR, conversion rate, and lower refund rates.

Best of all: there’s better repeat purchase behavior, all without increasing spend.

Where Most Brands Get “Brand” Wrong

They over-index on visuals and under-index on what’s most important.

Brand is how consistently you behave.

What do customers see before they buy? What happens immediately after? How do you communicate when nothing is being sold?

These moments matter significantly more than logos.

Brand as a System Rather than a Layer

Growth operators think about brand the same way they think about funnels or retention: as a system with inputs and outputs.

• Inputs are: messaging, proof, clarity, consistency.

• Outputs are the effects: CAC, LTV, conversion efficiency.

When brand is treated as a system, performance becomes easier to scale.

The One Thing You Can Strengthen Immediately

If you want a fast win, start here: clarity.

Most brands lose trust not because they look bad, but because they’re unclear in their positioning, outcomes, and differentiation

This makes it so that when customers don’t instantly understand who you’re for and why you’re different, they default to skepticism.

Clarity reduces skepticism faster than polish ever will.

What Clarity Actually Looks Like

Clear brands say less, better.

They repeat the same core message across ads, emails, site copy, and post-purchase communication.

They don’t rotate identities every quarter or chase trends at the expense of coherence.

That repetition builds familiarity.

I've had 1 slot open for a Nord Media sponsorship opportunity in February.

If you want to get your SaaS / Agency in front of 100,000 marketers, founders, Shopify operators etc...

Shoot me a DM - let’s chat.

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