Daniel James

Flight Performance

We accelerate growth for ambitious brands.

Enabling you to acquire more customers, more profitably at greater scale, and build lasting customer loyalty.

Founder & CEO @ Flight Performance

Bitesized Podcast

A weekly podcast and newsletter created by & made for entrepreneurs, growth marketers, and brand owners.

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Founder & CEO @ Flight Performance: Accelerating growth for eCommerce brands with Growth Strategy, Customer Acquisition & Customer Retention | Host of Entrepreneurship, Brand Building & Marketing Podcast Bitesized🎙

Ex: Client Strategy lead MySpace, AOL & Turn, before launching my own performance marketing agency in 2019.

Founder of Flight Performance: we help brands acquire more customers, more profitably, at greater scale & building lasting customer loyalty.

Brands we have helped drive profitable growth include Represent Clo, Kappa, Huel, Rockstar Originals, Ghost Golf, Oh Polly, Crown Affair, Before You Speak Coffee, Diet Starts Monday + more.

Core Capabilities Include: 

Customer Acquisition: Growth Strategy, Performance Creative, Media Buying
Customer Retention: Email, SMS, Subscription & Loyalty

To learn more about how we can work together shoot us an email at hello@flightperformance.co

Testimonials:

"We partnered with Flight Performance for over 2 years and they were foundational in our ability to scale as fast and successfully as we have. Their expertise in creative strategy, media buying and retention marketing made them an invaluable partner to Ghost Golf, and a true extension of our team. Highly recommend" - Andy Nalla, Founder & CEO Ghost Golf

“From the outset, Flight Performance demonstrated a deep understanding of our business goals and objectives. Their data-driven and strategic approach to customer acquisition and customer retention contributed significantly to the growth Crown Affair has been able to achieve over the last 3 years of working together” - Elaine Choi | President Crown Affair

“The Flight Performance team's ability to reduce our Customer Acquisition costs, lead by creative strategy, & Influencer content was really impressive. They worked hard to understand our goals and executed against the game plan, with great communication and results to support” - Howie Zisser | Marketing Director Public Rec


Host of Bitesized:

A weekly podcast featuring top entrepreneurs, brand builders & marketers giving actionable insights you can apply today.

Listen on Spotify: tinyurl.com/Bitesized-Spotify
Listen on Apple: tinyurl.com/Bitesized-Apple
Watch on YouTube: tinyurl.com/Bitesized-YouTube

“One of my favorite podcasts. Great content packed with actionable insights.” - Neal Goyal | Tapcart
"Hands down one of the most valuable podcasts I listened to in this field" - Ben Simons

Founder & CEO

mint is a full-service performance marketing agency. we help disruptive dtc/ecommerce brands accelerate growth with cutting edge strategies across creative, influences, paid media, email & sms. 

You Might Miss The Bullseye, But Dont Miss The Target

As a growth team, we are responsible for providing each and every client with a forecast & budget, anchored to the target performance metrics that make customer acquisition & retention scaleable and sustainable.

There are so many factors that go into this that make sure forecasts are not arbitrary YoY, MoM %'s, yet with the right foundation achieve the desired YoY & MoM growth.

To name a few:

- Historical analysis, current trajectory, desired future state of the business & performance channels that support it.
- On hand inventory, re-stocks & new product drops
- Marketing moments (launches, promos etc)

And a key thing with forecasts is: you might not hit the bullseye, ie: hitting every days revenue and performance goals, but do not miss on the broader weekly, monthly, new drop, promotional targets.

Thats where having yourself set up in a way that allows you to pull levers comes into play - that feeds into that future facing strategy and avoids the 'day trading' mentality to performance marketing that means missing the bullseye often leads to missing the target.

Your base levers:

- Spend
- Spend allocation to audience segment (cold, engaged, repeat)
- Omni-Channel Splits (eg: across meta, tiktok, google)
- Creative by funnel stage
- Email campaign strategy & structure

All anchoring up into target revenue, spend, spend allocation, nMER, MER, ACoS targets daily, for the period, monthly, quarterly & annually.

In the attached example, this was a planned out moment for one of our brands.

Projected sales for this moment: $1,297,119

We missed on day 3... oh shit!

But we were already up.

We missed on day 7!

But we over delivered on day 8.

Projected Total Sales: $1,297,119.00
Actual Total Sales: $1,379,216.90
Achieved against our nMER, MER, ACoS targets & within the planned budget.


The TLDR is:

- Not having a data backed approach to forecasting, budgeting & performance metrics is like finger in the air forecasting & planning - pointless.
- Having a day trading approach to performance marketing will make you miss the target when you don't hit the bullseye
- Control the set up of your levers so you can accurately and effectively pull them to attain the goal

Founder @ Flight Performance: Helping fashion & apparel brands acquire more customers, more profitably at greater scale & build lasting customer loyalty | Host of Entrepreneurship & Brand Building Podcast @ Bitesized🎙

74% Of People Say The Consider Leaving A Job Due To This..

Micromanagement.

There’s a fine line between being hands-on & micromanaging.

Most leaders, myself included, typically learn the hard way where that line actually is.

Early on, we tend to oversteer. We’re involved in every detail, every decision, every call...mostly out of fear. Fear that things won’t be done “correctly”…correctly meaning 'our' way and the need to control every aspect of our business.

The over correction is then the 'hire smart people and get out their way' mentality. Assuming autonomy means absence.

Neither works.

It starts with who you hire, but a framework I've adopted is the 10:80:10 rule.

10%: Set Direction, Desired Outcomes, Not Tasks
Your team doesn’t need a to-do list.
They need clarity.
Why this matters, how success is defined, and how it connects to the bigger picture.
Clarity drives ownership.

80%: Empower Execution
Once the vision and parameters are clear, step back.
Let smart people think, build, iterate, and own.
You’re not removing yourself, you’re enabling performance through trust and structure, not oversight and anxiety.

10%: Build a Feedback Loop, Not a Check-In

Weekly or project check-ins shouldn’t feel like audits.
They’re opportunities to coach, refine, and challenge thinking.
That’s how you keep alignment without killing initiative.

The Leadership Flywheel
Clarity → Autonomy → Coaching → Clarity

We’re in a Data-Rich, Clarity-Poor Ecosystem.

Let’s take a 9-figure brand’s marketing ecosystem.

Minimum, they’re running 6 figures in paid media daily across Meta, Google, TikTok, CTV, Programmatic, OOH...

Add to that:

- Thousands of influencers and affiliate agreements
- Owned social platforms, PR, SEO, podcast ads, newsletters
- Sophisticated email & SMS retention programs
- Billboards, pop ups, sponsorships
- POS across DTC, TikTok Shop, owned stores, retail, app channels.

They’ve got a BI tool, an attribution platform, GA4, creative analytics dashboards, and in-platform data from every channel.

Add to THAT:
- Silod execution of all channels listed
- No single strategic and metric objective
- No unified execution of core performance channels

Thats the common scenario of brands that we initially audit and work with at Flight. Successful, growing, but on hard mode.

The challenge with a data rich environment is, every source tells a story. None of them tell the same one. Execution is mostly anchored to making INDIVIDUAL channels 'successful'

Data-rich, clarity-poor. Silod execution.

Here’s the real issue:

It’s not a lack of data. It’s a lack of structure around it & interpretation to make the correct decisions. 

Data paralysis sets in where more time is spent trying to make the data make sense, than is spent asking the right questions of the data, to make better decisions.

Most brands have the data to make better decisions they just haven’t built the framework that connects it to meaningful action, nor are they asking the right questions.

The best growth marketers and teams simplify data. The unify strategy and execution across ALL channels, held to key north star metrics. 

They ask the right questions of the data & use it to both: understand where you are, and what levers to pull to get you to where you need to be.

What are the right north star metrics?

- Customer Acquisition: what’s driving profitable new customer growth.
- Customer Retention: what’s sustaining it through repeat behavior.
- LTV: what’s compounding it over time.
- Contribution Margin.

Everything else creative analytics, media metrics, platform data should anchor up into those.

If you can’t answer:

What’s driving efficient new customer acquisition?
What’s driving higher repeat behavior and LTV?
How do these connect across your channels?

Then you don’t need more data.
You need a better omni channel strategy & data clarity.

TL;DR:
- We don’t have a data problem in marketing, we have a clarity problem.
- The best marketers are the ones who ask the right questions of simplified data sets.
- Silod execution will keep you in data rich clarity poor mode.
- Unify acquisition, retention and treat channels as levers to achieve north star metrics.

I found myself kinda complaining to my partner the other night.

How busy I was. 
How stressed I felt.
How I have been working 18 hour days.
How the pressure felt intense running companies, managing teams, finances etc

She listened, supportively, as she always does. And hit me with something that is a reminder to everyone and anyone.

‘well, your asked for this’

It stopped me in my tracks, because she is 1000% right.

I did ask for this.
In fact I actively pursued and pursue it.
It’s my obsession.
Waking up every day to solve problems, get 1% better is what drives me.
And If I wasn’t doing this, I would likely feel unfulfilled.

It’s the pursuit of hard things that makes me feel alive & largely gives me purpose.

It was a real reminder that this is just what it takes, for me to achieve the goals I have set for myself. No one else is making me want the things I want to achieve!

Something that reframed so much for me was a Mo Gawdat podcast on DOAC.

That unhappiness is when expectations don’t match current reality.

I see that a step further. If you want to build a world class multi million dollar company, if you want to raise capital to fund an AI/Tech company, If you want to get in amazing shape, run sub 6 minute miles…. really, achieve anything extraordinary in life - your effort has to match what it requires to achieve the thing. Else, you have to downgrade your expectations.

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Founder @ Flight Performance: Accelerating growth for Ambitious DTC/eCom brands | Host of Entrepreneurship, Brand Building & Marketing Podcast Bitesized🎙

I have a piece of paper that in 2020, I wrote down my 5 dream clients* that I ultimately wanted to work with at my, at that point still not formed, growth marketing company.

From that day, I have built the company with the vision of being the type of company those brands would want to, be excited about, and massively benefit from working with.

A combination of the right talent, the right positioning, the right proof of our work, the right standards for how we show up as a company and team, in every interaction internally and externally.

The north star: being the best growth marketing company for fashion, apparel, sports brands in the world. 

Thats the big idea and vision. 

How you become that, is then down to the culture you create. Through the people you hire, the expectations you set, how you hold yourself accountable to and push the standards within the company.

I don't recall who said it, but it really helped frame things for me that culture isn't the buzz words, perks, or statements leadership writes that no-one remembers, or pays attention too.

It's the principles and set of actions that guide and drive everything you do as a company.

I think its James Clear that said, You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

I agree with that. 

Equally as important from my experience is, you do not rise to the level of your goals, you rise or fall to the level of standards, execution & output you accept. 

If good is always “good enough,”
If last minute becomes “normal,”
If communication gets sloppy because “we’re busy,”
If quality becomes negotiable when the deadline gets tight...

Then that becomes the culture. That becomes you. That becomes your own baseline for your own capabilities.

The outcomes you achieve, the success you experience, even your ability to enjoy your work are all predicated on the standards you hold for yourself and others.

*As of today, we have worked with 2 of the 5 from that list … one hopefully coming on soon. The others are Stone Island and Kith... back to work!

Blowing performance out the water for this new client in month 1.

Closed the month +26% ahead of projections, +17% over the September goal, and +31% up vs YTD sales. Adjusting forecasts accordingly.

We work with 6, 7, 8 & 9 figure brands.

Not only does each brand/business have nuance, whats needed for a 6 figure brand is different than whats needed for a 9 figure brand to scale & drive performance.

Whats true of all however is having clarity on the goal, and how you are going to achieve it is the starting point, and the levers, often stay the same:

- Creative
- Channel
- Budget

- What product, messaging, moments are informing creative strategy (+ performance & customer data insights)
- What channels are you using for distribution.
- What channel & in platform funnel splits, are being applied to drive the right level of new customer acquisition.

For a brand of this size, its getting those fundamentals dialed that will get them to 7 figure months, fast.

Conversational Commerce, & the beginning of the end for Google?


Shopify announced a new integration with OpenAI making possible for merchants to be able to sell directly in ChatGPT conversations. 

Imagine: you ask ChatGPT for a gift idea, or the best pair of blue light glasses, and it shows a range of products you can buy without ever leaving the chat. 

More than that, having tested it myself in my quest for blue light glasses, it makes recommendations, tells me what glasses are best for what, so it doesn't just show me products, it acts as my personalized shopping assistant and aids in my discovery:purchase journey.

The beauty of this is that Shopify keeps brands in control:

- Merchants remain the merchant of record
- Orders still flow into Shopify’s admin
- Brand identity & attribution stay intact 

This isn’t just another channel, it’s a structural shift in how commerce, conversation, and context blend.

It bridges discovery → purchase in one seamless flow

It gives brands a new way to “show up” in AI-native moments

It nudges us closer to a future where agentic commerce (shopping via intelligent agents) becomes the norm.

The real game changer will happen when OpenAI becomes an ad network and you can bid on search terms, as you can on Google and other search engines.

Everything is, or eventually becomes an ad-network.

shopify.com

Shopify and OpenAI bring commerce to ChatGPT

“Hire smart people and get out of their way” sounds like great leadership advice.

The problem? It’s oversimplified and in practice, it often leads to chaos, not high performance.

True leadership isn’t about disappearing once you’ve hired talented people.

It’s about creating the right balance between autonomy, coaching, and alignment.

I use the 10:80:10 framework:

10%: Give clarity up front. Define the problem, set direction, and connect it to company goals.

80%: Let your team run. This is where smart people thrive, executing, iterating, and solving.

10%: Step back in. Review, coach, and refine to ensure work ties back to the broader mission.

And sometimes, that mix shifts. Maybe it’s 20:70:10 or 20:50:30 depending on the person, project, or stage of growth.

The point is:

👉 Great leadership isn’t “hands-off.”
👉 It’s structured delegation that empowers people to perform while still driving continuous improvement and alignment.

“getting out of the way” without coaching or alignment doesn’t make you a good leader.
It just makes you absent & even the smartest individuals need and likely want coaching & challenging.

You Dont Need More Data, You Need Better Alignment & Interpretation

Heres the challenge for brands and marketers:

- Growth has CAC, nMER, MER targets.
- Retention has their repeat & LTV goals.
- Creative is chasing engagement and thumb-stops.
- Media is chasing ROAS.

Add to that:
- Silod execution of all channels listed
- No single strategic and metric objective
- No unified execution of core performance channels

They’ve got a BI tool, an attribution platform, GA4, creative analytics dashboards, and in-platform data from every channel.

The challenge with a data rich environment is, every source tells a story. None of them tell the same one. Execution is mostly anchored to making INDIVIDUAL channels 'successful'

Data-rich, clarity-poor. Silod execution.

Thats the common scenario of brands that we initially audit and work with at Flight. Successful, growing, but on hard mode.


Data clarity means nothing without strategic alignment.
Every channel, every campaign, every creative asset must anchor up to:

- Customer Acquisition: what’s driving profitable new customer growth.
- Customer Retention: what’s sustaining it through repeat behavior.
- LTV: what’s compounding it over time.
- Contribution Margin.

Everything else, creative analytics, platform ROAS, engagement metrics, are inputs, not outcomes.

The best growth teams don’t just unify data.
They unify channels & direction.

If you want clarity, connect your systems, your teams, and your metrics to a single version of growth truth.

Otherwise, you’re not just data-rich, clarity-poor, you're also alignment poor. 

TL;DR

- Brands don’t need more data they need alignment between teams, metrics, and execution & data interpretation
- Channel-level “success” means nothing without a unified growth objectives and business results. 
- Data clarity only matters when it drives connected decision-making and shared accountability.
- The best growth teams don’t just unify data, they unify strategy, execution and direction.

The Best Growth Marketing Teams Do This ONE Thing Better Than Others:

As a growth marketing company, our job is to drive profitable customer acquisition at scale and drive higher repeat rates and CLTV for our clients.

Initial analysis is always historical.

What have you done, to get to where you are.

This provides context on how effective and efficient a brand has been at driving the right business outcomes through paid media & email/sms.

Where most come unstuck however is their analysis lands them on tactics.

- Implement x ad account structure
- Test y type of creative
- Send more emails

It's what I call the 'day trading' approach to growth marketing. Forever reactionary to todays and yesterdays performance.

The best growth marketers use this information to create a roadmap for your acquisition and retention ecosystem.

The apply predictive modeling to forecast future business results - the tactics are then levers to attain them.

How this looks like in practice at a high level.

Day Trading: 

A brand is spending $10k per day at a 4 MER - thats good lets spend more today and see how it goes.

Growth Strategy:

1. How has spend influenced nMER, MER and your repeat customer cohorts?

This information provides the foundation for budgeting and forecasting against a revenue goal - both at the channel level and inter-channel audience segmentations.

Day Trading:

Lets test more statics and videos and see what works.

Growth Strategy:

1. The main drivers of performance have been x static, y video on xyz products.

This information is used, in correlation with product sales velocity data to align creative strategy with hero products, collections, categories. Creative strategy and diversification is then applied based on this information, and differentiated against based on funnel stage (hello correct audience segmentations in platform to be as accurate as possible).

TLDR:

- You cant 'day trade' your way to sustainable and scaleable growth.
- The best growth marketers predict & shape future growth as a cohesive ecosystem
- The best growth marketers use creative, budgets, channels etc as levers to attain that goal

From Firefighter To Architect

This mindset shift changed the way myself and our teams handled the inevitable challenges of building a company and being a leader.

If you’re building a company or leading a team, you’ll face challenges. daily. At varying degrees of severity!

And most people’s default reaction is the same: put out the fire.

It feels productive. 

You fix the issue, move on, and get back to work. 

But if you’re always putting out fires, you’re not actually building fireproof systems. And you’re likely putting out iterations of the same fires over and over again. Worse, you are accepting that this is the way it is, and always will be.

Reactive. Busy. Short term thinking.

I've been there and had phases where this was our reality.

An issue comes up → we scramble → fix it → move on. 

But the inevitable happens and a week or month later, the same type of issue resurfaces in a different form. 

Seems so obvious in hindsight, but this mindset shift really changed how I, and how I ask our teams to think about and approach challenges, roadblocks, set backs:

Don’t think: “How do we fix this?”
Ask: “Why did this happen?”

This small reframe forces you to slow down, zoom out, gather data & feedback to understand, and ultimately solve for the root cause of the issue.

Stops you exhausting efforts putting out fires, still leaving embers and smoke along the way, and it doesn't take much for them to flare back up when you only approach things at surface level.

Because every recurring problem is feedback:
	•	If communication keeps breaking down, your structure is unclear.
	•	If deadlines keep slipping, your planning is off.
	•	If people keep making the same mistake, your process isn’t documented properly or you have the wrong people in the wrong seat.

Once we started asking “why,” we stopped reviewing and solving surface-level issues and started auditing and solving for the root causes.


TL;DR:
- If you’re constantly solving the same problems, you’re not building your foundation, you’re firefighting and accepting reoccurring issues as an inevitable reality.
- Shift your mindset from “How do we fix this?” to “Why did this happen?”
- Solving problems drives short term progress. Preventing them builds compounding momentum.

The global streetwear market is projected to reach $637.13 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 7.89%, making it one of the fastest-growing segments in fashion.

But here's what's interesting: 45% of consumers purchase streetwear items once a month, while 35% buy only once every three months.

Translation: Lower purchase frequency, but massive market size.

This changes how to approach streetwear marketing. 
And something I talk to brand owners and CEOs/CMOs of fashion brands about all the time is: how you marketing within fashion & apparel is heavily predicated on what TYPE of brand you are and what segment of fashion you play in

Streetwear, Fast Fashion, Luxury, Athleisure... all different models.
Frequent unique drops, seasonal drops, basics with category expansions... all different models.

How you market a brand like Cuts Clothing or BLYT is INCREDIBLY different to how you market Represent or Kith


For streetwear, there are a few key pillars:

🔥 Scarcity as Strategy 
- 66% of streetwear industry respondents view the drops model as core to their strategy. Supreme perfected this - intentionally limit quantity and create exclusivity for every product to build demand frenzy. It's not just about limited supply. It's about making customers feel like insiders when they get the drop.

🤝 Community Over Customers
- At its core, streetwear is all about the people. The best brands don't just sell clothes - they sell membership to a movement. Palace built a skate community. Stone Island created a technical wear cult. Supreme turned shopping into a cultural event.

📱 Social-First Distribution
- Youth culture, celebrity endorsements, and social media trends prominently drive streetwear. Traditional retail channels are secondary.
Instagram Stories for drops. TikTok for discovery. Discord for community. 

The distribution IS the marketing.

The winning formula isn't about reaching everyone.

It's about creating obsession among the right people.

Streetwear customers buy identity, not just clothing. Exclusivity drives demand more than discounts. 

TLDR:
- Fashion marketing is different based on your product model
- Know where you play/want to play, align marketing to product model

Who Can Relate? 😅

If you are late to your BFCM planning, I've got you.

Here are 5 strategies that separate Black Friday winners from the noise:

1. Spend now, reap the rewards. 

To be real, BFCM success is the momentum you have built all year. Even with that, many brands will pull back on spend in the lead up. Brands should spend into moments to build up demand. Your goal is to convert traffic and intent, this is often achieved BEFORE your promo drops: what you are doing during is showcasing the actual offers, on offer. There will likely be a slow down on sales, and most brands make the mistake of pulling back spend too soon: as much as you can, avoid that. Your revenue will than you later.

2. Keep your evergreen ads live, even if they don't feature the promo! 

These ads have built up social proof, data, and consumers who have seen the ad in the build up to BFCM may be holding on their decision to buy until your promo drops. In addition to evergreen and historical best performers, create some simple, static, bold and clear creatives announcing your promo. Treat these ads like a billboard. Simple. In your face. Lead with the offer.

3. Optimize your conversion funnel for the moment. 

Throughout the year, brands are testing things in the checkout process to increase AOV, cross-sell, upsell AND increase conversion rates. BFCM is the time to convert, quickly, seamlessly, en mass. Remove as much friction as possible. Its not the time for cart or checkout testing. If its not PROVEN to aid conversion rates, get rid.

4. Lean into owned audiences

Owned audiences, like your email, sms, loyalty customers, are a brands most valuable customers, and promotional period performance lever, but don't get lazy, and don't beat them into submission. Segment and personalize - you have the data, use it to maximize not only revenue but to strategically build on LTV/Brand loyalty, while helping drive monster revenue days.

5. Blanket discounts = lower margin & price sensitive customers

Try personalizing your offers to certain customers and maintain a less margin battering overall promo, add tiers. Just don't make the CORE offer too complicated and run risk of confusion or adding friction. Some thought starters
→ x% off abandoned cart items (segment accordingly on hirstorical data)
→ Exclusives for VIP customers only
→ Early access to your highest loyalty customers 
→ Dynamic bundles based on browsing history
(more to come on this one!)


What am I missing? 👇

If You Don't Know Where You Are Going, Any Road Will Get You There.

The #1 issue we encounter with brands we audit, outside of META ad accounts set up like its 2015, is they are in pure short term execution mode.

Running ads.
Sending emails.
Spending media dollars.

Ask what the strategy is that sits on top of this, that provides cohesiveness, specific targets, how channels are managed in tandem not in silos, most... have not and do not approach growth that way. 

And yet the goal is always the same. 

Increase revenue.
Increase marketing $ efficiency
Increase repeat customer rates.

All of these are actually relatively easy if approached without a longer term view or very defined goal actually is.

Increase revenue? Spend more, test more offers
Increase marketing $ efficiency? Optimize to efficiency only
Increase repeat rates? Send more emails, test more offers

Achieving them all at the same time, in a way that actually drives the right business outcome however, requires a far more considered approach, with a clear understanding of the goal, and economics of the brand.

If you want to achieve the right outcomes for your brand, start by really defining what they are and the specifics within which they need to be achieved.

Increase revenue:
- To what, by when
- Do you have the inventory to support
- What is the channel mix and optimal budget split
- How many new customers and at what nMER makes this effective based on, being efficient on available budget, factoring in current and anticipated repeat rates

Increase efficiency:
- Define what efficiency your business needs to achieve to be able to operate effectively 
- Ensure you are managing this holistically across paid media channels, not in silos
- Track efficiency against repeat - whats the optimal mix and specific targets

Increase repeat rates:
- Actually understand how: do you have a product mix that supports this even being attainable
- Is this predicated on new drops, or through up selling, cross selling, loyalty programs etc
- Do you have the volume of new customers to support this being sustainable over the long term

TLDR;
- Without a clear goal, you'll be stuck in short term executional mode
- Short term executional mode is counteractive to effective and sustainable growth

Looking forward to being a speaker at CreativeCon, hosted by Chase Mohseni and the CreativeOS team.
​
The lineup is stacked with top tier thinkers and operators diving into all things Creative, Acquisition, Retention & AI
​
Alex Cooper – Co-Founder, AdCrate
Sarah Levinger – Founder, Tether Insights
Dan Pantelo – Founder, Marpipe
Fraser Cottrell – Co-Founder, Fraggel
Jess Chan – CEO, Long Play Brands
Sanjay Jenkins – Head of Growth, Replo
MacCoy Merkley – CMO, Portland Leather Goods
Julia Winn – Head of Product, Replo
Olly Hudson – Co-Founder, Soar With Us
Cherene Aubert – VP of Ecomm, Ilia Beauty
Dylan Ander – CEO, Heatmap
Jimmy Slagle – CEO, human squared
Bobby Callaghan – CEO, Retentio
Jacob Posel – Founder, Stealth + AI Guru
Joseph Siegel – Retention Consultant
Phoenix Ha – VP of Socials, Instant Hydration
Rahul Issar – Head of Paid Marketing, Reach Digital

​
📍October 15th 
📍Sponsored by Marpipe, Proxima, and Replo
📍Presented by CreativeOS
​
Link to register in the comments!! 👇
​

Founder/CEO @ CreativeOS - streamlining your creative process.

This one’s been 12 months in the making… 
​
And on October 15th, we’re launching something BIG.
​
CreativeCon.
​
A FULL-day digital event for marketers who actually care about creative.
​
And this one is unlike anything that’s been done before in the space….
​
You’ll get a complete masterclass on the 3 most important areas when it comes to eCom marketing heading into 2026: 
​
1 - CREATIVE: ads, landing pages, brand systems
2 - RETENTION: lifecycle, CRO, LTV scaling
3 - AI: tactical, real-world creative use cases
​
And your instructors? 
​
We made sure to STACK the lineup with killers:
​
Alex Cooper – Co-Founder, AdCrate
Sarah Levinger – Founder, Tether Insights
Dan Pantelo – Founder, Marpipe
Fraser Cottrell – Co-Founder, Fraggel
Jess Chan – CEO, Long Play Brands
Sanjay Jenkins – Head of Growth, Replo
MacCoy Merkley – CMO, Portland Leather Goods
Julia Winn – Head of Product, Proxima
Olly Hudson – Co-Founder, Soar With Us
Cherene Aubert – VP of Ecomm, Ilia Beauty
Dylan Ander – CEO, Heatmap
Jimmy Slagle – CEO, human squared
Bobby Callaghan – CEO, Retentio
Jacob Posel – Founder, Stealth + AI Guru
Daniel James – Founder, Flight Performance
Joseph Siegel – Retention Consultant
Phoenix Ha – VP of Socials, Instant Hydration
Rahul Issar – Head of Paid Marketing, Reach Digital

I’ve seen early versions of some of their decks….
​
These folks are bringing the 🔥.
​
📍October 15th (Right before BFCM)
📍Sponsored by Marpipe, Proxima, and Replo
📍Presented by CreativeOS
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Saw a post from Chris Williamson the other day (very happy you're getting more active on the platform!) about 'strategic' being one of the most overused words on LinkedIn, while execution features far less.

His post was on point when it comes from simply going from 0-1, just start.

But it got me thinking about how much we emphasize strategy at Flight Performance when it comes to developing growth plans for our clients & what strategy is, vs what it isn't.

What it's not:

Over engineered, rigid & fixed

What it is:

1. A framework and parameters that guide execution & sets the direction to achieve a goal.
2. Holds execution success accountable, but shifts based on executional data
3. Easy to follow, easy to adjust 
4. Provides cohesion to all applicable elements of what is needed to achieve a goal (ie, who & what needs to do what & when)

Here's an example of a summary strategy slide for one of our latest clients for the first 30 days, within what we call our Flight Plan approach - 30-60-90 day strategic & executional roadmaps that we implement following a business audit for all out client partners.

This was for customer acquisition only.

It establishes the target & performance goals.
Provides a forecast and budget (not shown).
And sets the strategic priorities that will get us there.

We track daily, optimize accordingly, tweak the strategy based on executional performance.

There is a lot of detail behind this and in part the strategy is and was the work done, thinking applied, and approach developed to summarize the actions.

But he clarity of the upfront strategy provides the specific parameters for each channel/element to then execute against, also giving clarity to our clients what the forward facing goals, actions, priorities are - and provides strategic pillars to which we can answer the question:

Did we achieve what we set out to achieve?

Its not fixed, overengineered, it evolves based on feedback (ie: performance).


TLDR;

Execution beats strategy, that I 100% agree with.

But so many execute blindly, without ANY defined strategy, meaning you are constantly executing without purpose. Outside of the basics (bad account structures, poor or non existent creative strategy) THIS is the #1 thing brands lack when we audit.

Want to learn more about our Flight Plan approach? 
Reach out at hello@flightperformance.co

Host of Modern Wisdom. Co-Founder of Neutonic.

Trying To Decieve With Ai Isn't How Brands Win With Ai

The fact that it’s getting harder to distinguish what’s real from what’s AI-generated says everything about how quickly the technology is evolving.

I agree with the idea that AI should be seen as a tool & has many benefits - of which we are using extensively at my companies and to support our clients. I

 also believe consumers (and eventually regulation) will require that AI content be clearly labeled. 

Transparency will become non-negotiable.

The best use of AI right now isn’t in trying to trick people into believing it’s human-made, that only creates backlash & we’ve already seen plenty of cases where AI-generated imagery mimicking human likeness has sparked frustration and distrust.

Instead, the real opportunity lies where AI is clearly being AI.

The brands that win won’t be the ones trying to blur the line between human and machine.

They’ll be the ones using AI openly and responsibly to enhance experiences. Not deceive.

Curious, how do you think brands should communicate when AI is involved in their creative or customer experience?

The Key Things You Need To Know About Winning On META

Didnt attend the recent META Performance Roadshows?

Here’s everything you need to know 👇

- Creative similarity now defines reach and cost.
 Meta now treats two ads as identical if they share the same visual start.
 If the first 3 seconds of a video look the same, it’s the same ad, even if copy or CTA changes → Visual sameness drives fatigue faster than ever.

- Creative drives more than 50% of auction performance.
 The system is now heavily weighted toward creative differentiation.
 Automation is powerful but it can’t fix creative sameness.

- Persona-based ads outperform platform-based creative.
 Meta’s internal testing found ads built around motivations and identities unlock new audiences 89% of the time. Different personas = different resonance = different reach.

- Incremental edits don’t work anymore.
 Same creator, same setting, same tone?
 Meta will suppress it.
 Small copy or overlay tweaks no longer reset fatigue.
 → Big visual swings win.

- Q5 is the new growth window.
 CPMs drop post-holiday, intent rises, and 85% of Gen Z + Millennials keep shopping.
 Treat Q5 as an acquisition phase, not an off-season.

- Creators are the new media channel.
 Meta called creators “conduits to culture.”
 They’re no longer just top-of-funnel they’re full-funnel drivers of trust, relatability, and conversion.

- Measurement has to evolve.
 Incrementality testing and calibrated attribution (MMM/MTA) are now essential.
 If you can’t measure creative impact, you can’t scale it.

- Data health underpins creative performance.
 Clean event data, value parameters, and catalog hygiene matter more than ever.
 Good creative can’t outperform bad signals.

- Meta doesn’t reward how much you create it rewards how differently you create.
 Persona diversity and visual distinction are the new growth levers.
 Creative similarity kills reach. Creative differentiation scales it.

Final thoughts:

👉 The brands that win are those that feed METAs AI the right signals.
👉 Creative diversification matters as much if not more than creative volume.
👉 Lean into persona driven creative & creator content.

Share this with your fellow META / Paid Media folks!

The AI Trends That Marketers Shouldn’t Ignore

AI is moving faster than most marketing teams can keep up. The winners will be the ones who experiment early & develop, not wait for the playbook.

There is also a level of confusion of exactly, where, what and how AI can actually power more efficient & effective marketing and marketing teams. 

Here are the areas we are focussed on at Flight Performance:


- Large Language Models (LLMs): Beyond ChatGPT, they’re powering customer & consumer research, ad copy ideation, and knowledge management. 

- Generative Design: our design teams are using AI to help develop creative variations & ideation. Most used right now for concepting and statics, but video is improving - tough with fashion/apparel!

- Predictive Modeling/Analytics: Smarter budget allocation and demand forecasting = fewer wasted dollars & better decision making. We have developed our own methodology and utilization of AI to provide future facing forecasting and scenarios. Add to this custom prompt sequences based on scenarios, it is arming our growth strategists with data, insights, at their finger tips to make the right decisions.

- AI-Driven Workflows: All across the agency we have rolled out AI to streamline manual work across project management, reporting, communications, 


👉 Which of these trends are you already testing and which feel furthest away for you/your team?

I’m 20+ years into working in B2B marketing roles.

As a strategist at MySpace, AOL, Turn, and now as Founder (and initially strategist) at Flight Performance.

Simplistically put... each role consists of: devising strategies, communicate them with clients & teams, and executing a set of deliverables to deliver the strategy.

Its a people, process, deliverable intensive environment.

Across every role, employee, leader, founder, one thing has stayed consistent: You become a reflection of the standards you set, and then accept. 

If good is always “good enough,”
If last minute becomes “normal,”
If communication gets sloppy because “we’re busy,”
If quality becomes negotiable when the deadline gets tight...

Then that becomes the culture. That becomes you. That becomes your own baseline for your own capabilities.

The outcomes you achieve, the success you experience, even your ability to enjoy your work are all predicated on the standards you hold for yourself and others.

It shows up in the little things:

How you communicate.

How you take pride in the quality of your work.

How you respond when something isn’t right.

How much you capitalize on an opportunity when it presents itself.

It's also my experience that the best teams are made up of people who out-care, out-learn, and out-fail others, inside systems that reward & support high standards.

And a common misconception is that having high standards just means being expected to work harder and being told off if you don't hit them. Or maybe right, when not managed, communicated & operated correctly


Having high standards means there is an expectation level and understanding of how you, your team, your company shows up that establishes the baseline for every single output.

The ultimate reward and payoff for this isn't just on the performance, client relationships, company bottom lines...

It's how good people & teams become great.

It's how people & teams break through perceived limitations of capabilities.

It's how people & teams thrive vs flounder in fast paced environments.

It's how people & teams proactively progress vs passively get by.

It's how people & teams take higher satisfaction in their own and their team/companies work.

TLDR:
- You rise or fall to the expectations & standards you set your self and your teams.
- Having high standards isn't a baseline for punishment, its a bar to aim for that supports growth

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