Ryan Rouse's Linkedin Analytics

I worked on Wall Street during the Great Recession of 2008. We had TVs on all day, every day on the floor - MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, etc. Watching everyone on TV freak out 24/7 didn’t change what was happening, didn’t help from a mindset perspective, and certainly didn’t help us get the work that needed to get done, done. It’s 1 min into a 60 min game and no one has a clue how this one ends. Regardless, there's work to be done. So control what you can control. Scenario plan increases in COGS + decreases in sales and understand what that'll do to your cash position and your P&L. Build contingency plans. Avoid the doom scroll. Do the work.

There are marketers in consumer who know DTC. There are marketers in consumer who know Amazon. There are marketers in consumer who know Retail. There are marketers in consumer who know DTC, Amazon, and Retail. As an operator of a consumer brand, you want the last one as your head of marketing.

The filters that determine who I like to spend time with: They are a good human, fun to be around, and honest about the bullshit they're dealing with - internally and externally. Sounds simple, but the combination of the 3 filters out a lot of people. With the last one doing the heaviest lifting.

When poor decisions — or lack of decisions — become commonplace, people notice. And the more it’s allowed to go on, the more they lose faith. In leadership. And, ultimately, in the mission. By the time you know something, they’ve known for longer. So, move quickly and decisively. And realize that the downsides that come with changeover are made up for 100x in the faith that gets restored in the team.

If you’re a consumer brand trying to drive retail velocities via marketing, start at the point of sale. Because those dollars will work the hardest for you. High intent traffic is already there, so you should focus on grabbing their attention. In store signage, for example.

Your "get sh-t live line" is an important thing for any functional leader to be aware of. To know, on any given project or initiative, when you’ve reached the point where it’s good enough to push live and move on. At some point there’s a diminishing return on time and energy invested. And an opportunity cost - if you're still doing Thing A, you aren't doing Thing B. Along with product and team, speed is one of your main strategic advantages as an early stage brand. Version done may not be better than a future version, but you learn nothing from version none.

Sunk cost bias can be such a bottleneck for early stage brands. Trying stuff to learn what works is a core tenant of growth. Where that gets challenging is when you assign too much value to the time and money we spent on something. Which causes you to be slow to hit the stop button. But time and money don’t automatically correlate to success. So you have to be objective when looking at whether or not something is working for you, regardless of what it took to get those things live.

This is a banger of a secondary display. There is no better ad unit to drive awareness and sales - brand + performance - than a brand block or off shelf display. High amount of traffic from high intent buyers.

Your first job when launching a business isn't brand. It's demand. Brand matters. But too many founders come out of the gates looking to “build a brand.” Instead of nailing the product. Then proving that you can get people to buy it. Because those brand considerations go out the window real fast when you aren’t generating any revenue. #marketing #brand #business

People who laugh together, stick together. And laughter comes easiest when you’re being your unadulterated self. So embrace your crazy. And invite the people you work with to do the same.

The founder’s story is powerful in your marketing if you recognize one thing: You – the founder – are not the most important character. Here's what I mean: Your customer thinks about one person when considering whether or not to buy - them. So, if they can see themselves in the founder’s story, it draws them in. And has the resonating effect a great founder’s story can have. Where this goes wrong is when brands believe the founder is the hero. They aren’t - the customer is. #storytelling #marketing

For my 20’s and most of my 30’s, I was in a big hurry to be successful. I felt like I had to make it happen right away, so I was always pressing. But over the years, I noticed the most successful people I’ve been around all seemed to expect things to work out. From the outside it looks like everything comes naturally to them. But a big reason why it appears that way is they go with the flow. They let things happen. So one big shift I made in my late 30's was to let things come to me more. Ironically, since making that change, more things started to come. I’m still widely ambitious for success in every area of my life. And work hard to get there. But I’m not hell-bent on making it all happen today. #happiness #success #mindset

You have to be category obsessed to win in CPG. Consumers shop categories. Retailers manage categories. Founders used to have to immerse themselves into the category before thinking about anything else when retail was the only distribution channel available. That obsession on the front end went away during the DTC boom. Founders lost sight of the fact that consumers still compare their product to the broader category despite the fact that those other options don't sit side by side with theirs on their dot com. And that's one of the reasons many digitally native brands couldn't make the leap to retail. You gotta be an expert in your category to win.

When you avoid difficult conversations, you aren't preserving peace. You're kicking the can down the road. Have the difficult conversations real time. While uncomfortable in the moment, those convos lead to stronger relationships built on mutual respect and understanding.

One of the benefits of working at early stage companies is how quickly you can become valuable. No matter how good I was at my job at Merrill Lynch, being 1 out of 75,000 employees meant being valuable (in the eyes of people at high levels) was hard. That’s not the case at small companies. BUT You gotta remain valuable. And the best weapon you can bring to that fight: Resourcefulness. In short, get good at figuring out how to get sh-t done. #startups #growth #business

The gap between the outside perception and the actual reality of entrepreneurship is massive. Don’t believe the hype, it’s a hard and lonely path. Which is why there’s an unspoken kinship amongst those who have chosen to walk that path. And the reason every conversation I have with founders is more of a therapy session than anything else. For both of us. #startups #entrepreneurship

Be careful not to over value advice from people outside the company. This can come off as "no sh-t, sherlock" advice when talking about people who don't know your industry. But it's not so easy when talking about advice from experienced people. The mistake isn't seeking out those outside perspectives. That's encouraged. The mistake is placing too much weight on it. No matter how close to the brand someone is, they don't have the context and nuanced understanding you do. And they don't have your intuition. Because those things come from eating, sleeping and breathing the brand every single day.

It’s common to think you can handle the role of the person above you - until you’re in that seat. There’s always more to it then you think. So, rather than working to get into that role as quickly as possible… Learn as much as you can about the role from person who’s in it now. Be a sponge. Ask them what’s on their plate. Why they are making the decisions they’re making. That way, you’re prepared when you do get your shot. It’s a long game, play it that way.

Dinner with my wife's family gave me a valuable lesson to anyone trying to grow a consumer brand. My MIL was telling my wife about a product she loves, which was enough to convince my wife to buy one. (Not the lesson but a great reminder that WOM is king - always has been and always will be.) My wife takes out her phone and immediately goes to Amazon. Wasn't there. Next, Target dot com. Not there either. She went to their dot com but never made the purchase because in the 5 minutes it took her to navigate their site she was interrupted by one of our kids. Then we got to talking and it was out of her head. I was super curious if she ever made the purchase, so I asked her yesterday if she bought it. Not yet. I have a deep affinity for the DTC channel - that's where I cut my teeth. But you gotta understand that it's the channel with the most friction in the eyes of the consumer. And generating sales is about removing friction. And while there are people who will deal with the friction that comes with your DTC channel, you're missing out on the people who don't care enough (yet) to deal with the added friction if you aren't selling elsewhere. My wife would've made that purchase in 90 seconds if it was available on her first two stops. With that purchase, she might have built an affinity for the product and brand. That affinity could have given her the patience she needed to go to their website for the next purchase. Instead, she may never purchase.

Give your team access to the P&L. All of them.  Better yet, teach them how to read it. And educate them on how their role contributes to it.  Alignment comes when everyone works towards the same goals.  The P&L shows you how sustainable your operating model is and whether it's trending in the right direction or not. It also exposes your opportunities and risks. If they aren’t seeing those things, true alignment doesn't exist. Can you imagine how a sports team would do if only 20% of the team saw the scoreboard?  The answer: Not as well as they could be doing.