The Built To Scale Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

A lot of companies are scaling themselves into a cash flow crisis and they have no idea it's happening. Jeremy Reeves has built five eight-figure offers and generated over $200 million in revenue, and his biggest finding is that acquisition is the least important part of the equation.

What you'll learn:

• How to calculate your real allowable customer acquisition cost (most brands get this completely wrong)
• Why lifetime value is a misleading metric unless you contribution-margin-adjust it and measure by cohort
• The five profit levers in Jeremy's Scalable Profit Model: contribution margin, acquisition economics, LTV, operational efficiency, and capital return velocity
• Why a 1% improvement in contribution margin can drive 4 to 6% in additional profit, and why most founders never touch it
• How to use overhead per customer to diagnose whether your business is bloated or lean (with a concrete dollar figure)
• Why AI is about to erase marketing advantages entirely, and what that means for how you compete

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About Jeremy Reeves:

Jeremy Reeves is the founder of Scale Advisors and author of The Scalable Profit Model. He started as a direct response copywriter and sales funnel strategist before building and scaling multiple eight-figure supplement and health brands. He now consults with DTC businesses on a performance basis, helping them add profit without adding ad spend.

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Connect with him at:

Website: https://scaleadvisors.com/ 

Book: https://scaleadvisors.com/book 

The Scale Advisors Podcast: https://scaleadvisors.com/podcast  

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@scaleadvisors 

X: https://x.com/JeremyReeves

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyreeves/ 

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Key moments:

• [~11:00] The five levers of the Scalable Profit Model, explained one by one
• [~13:00] Why the standard way founders calculate LTV is wrong, and what to use instead
• [~20:00] The real cost of a bloated operation: how Jeremy spotted a $600K inefficiency in under 10 minutes
• [~37:00] Capital return velocity: the metric Jeremy coined because no one else had named it yet
• [~42:00] A dead simple cash flow win: switch to a 60-day credit card and stop paying for airline points

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About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email podcast@builttoscale.co.

Most brands are sitting on a revenue stream they have never touched. The moment someone buys your front-end offer, supplement, course, or gadget, there is a window of peak intent that closes fast. Max Kramer built an entire company around owning that window for other brands, and his model converts fresh buyers into $5,000 high-ticket coaching clients before the transaction is even a memory.

What you'll learn:

• How Kramer Media operates as a white-label coaching division for info, supplement, and ecom brands without disrupting what those brands are already doing
• Why the moment of purchase is the highest-leverage contact point and why email follow-up is already too late
• The trust formula Max learned from marketer Eben Pagan: explain the customer's problem better than they can and they will trust you instantly
• Why Max believes AI will never fully replace human coaching, and the one psychological dynamic that makes human accountability irreplaceable
• The monkey brain problem with SOPs: why it is not enough to build systems, you have to become a slave to them even when your instincts say otherwise
• Where Max lands on the quality vs. quantity dial for sales teams, and why his answer might surprise you
• Why Max's biggest fear is not AI or competition but something entirely internal

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About Max Kramer:

Max Kramer is the founder of Kramer Media, a white-label coaching company that plugs into brands in the info, supplement, and ecom space and converts front-end buyers into $5,000 high-ticket coaching clients. He built his first coaching brand in the dating advice space in 2012, grew it to over one million social media followers, and used that decade of operational experience to build a backend coaching engine that now serves multiple verticals. He is based in the world he built from scratch, starting with nothing but a personal problem and a willingness to solve it.

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Connect with him at:

Email: max@kramermediainc.com 

Telegram: @kramermedia

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Key moments:

• 05:46 - The white-label insight that changed everything
• 17:01 - What coaching actually is and why AI cannot replace it
• 24:44 - The trust principle Max learned from Eben Pagan that closes $5K sales
• 33:05 - The monkey brain problem and how SOPs save you from yourself
• 35:52 - Quantity vs. quality: where Max sets the dial on leads and salespeople

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About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email podcast@builttoscale.co.

The Built to Scale podcast, hosted by Shmuel Herschberg, focuses on the discipline of scaling in digital marketing. The podcast is aimed at people building and growing digital marketing businesses, and it provides candid talks about the wins, setbacks, and real lessons from industry experts.

Takeaways

• Scaling is a key focus in digital marketing
• Podcast is for people building and growing digital marketing businesses

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction to Built to Scale Podcast

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Follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/

For more information about Built To Scale visit https://builttoscale.co/

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email podcast@builttoscale.co.

Most companies think they've "adopted AI." They have a Copilot license, maybe a chatbot on the website. John Munsell calls that dipping your toe in the water. Real adoption looks completely different and the gap between where most companies are and where they need to be is costing them millions.

What you'll learn:

• Why "AI adoption" is being measured wrong and what the right metric actually is
• How John's 10 Levels of AI Mastery framework pinpoints exactly where your team is falling short
• Why 90%+ of employees at most companies are stuck at level two or below (and how to fix it fast)
• How proper training can compress 19-24 months of individual AI growth into 4-6 weeks
• Why governance and training are the two things companies leave for last and why that is the most expensive mistake they make
• How team makeup (the PAEI framework) determines whether your AI initiatives succeed or stall

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About John Munsell

John Munsell is the CEO of Bizzuka and the author of "InGrain AI." He sold his digital marketing agency client portfolio in 2022, right before ChatGPT went public, and spent the following years building a framework to help companies move from AI curiosity to full workforce transformation. His InGrain AI Certified Implementer Program is developing the next generation of Chief AI Officers.

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Key moments

• (06:54) The $19K website that became a $150K engagement. 
• (13:33) Why "AI adoption" is a lie.
• (14:22) Introducing the 10 levels of AI mastery. John breaks down the framework his firm uses to assess real proficiency, not usage, across entire organizations.
• (21:03) The brick exercise. John splits 40 employees into groups and gives them five minutes to list as many uses for a brick as possible. 
• (28:36) Shadow AI is already in your building. 
• (33:57) The three-tier governance model. 
• (44:40) What the 10 levels of AI adoption actually look like. 
• (47:18) Training and governance are last on every company's list. 
• (50:25) How to get a resistant workforce to actually adopt AI. 

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Connect with John Munsell:

• Website: https://www.bizzuka.com
• Book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2Z6H53T/
• New book waitlist: https://www.ingrain.ai/2026
• Free economic impact assessment (valued at $547, but free for my listeners! Use code SHMUEL for 100% off): https://www.bizzuka.com/impact

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About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email podcast@builttoscale.co.

Most people know what they want. The problem is they're their own biggest obstacle.

Paul Hoffman has lived multiple lifetimes in one. He wrote one of the most iconic advertising jingles in history, built and lost everything, found his way back, and has since spent decades helping over 3 million people redesign their lives from the inside out. As founder of Sculpting Your Life and creator of a binaural beat brain technology distributed by Mindvalley, Paul's framework is part neuroscience, part philosophy, entirely grounded in lived experience.

What you'll learn:

• Why your subconscious mind is running the show, and the only way to change how you think
• Paul's 7-step "Tuning In" framework for identifying what's holding you back
• How to build a morning ritual that sets the frequency for your entire day
• Why scaling starts with your foundation, not your funnel
• How Paul uses AI as a creative tool without being technical at all

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About Paul Hoffman:

Paul Hoffman is the founder of Sculpting Your Life and a personal transformation architect who has worked with over 3 million people worldwide. He is a former advertising jingle writer behind the iconic "Have You Driven a Ford Lately?" campaign and the creator of a binaural beat brain technology marketed globally through Mindvalley. He speaks, coaches, and builds tools designed to help people stop living by default and start living by design.

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Connect with him at:

WhatsApp/Cell: (323) 810-5588

Email: paulhoffman24@gmail.com

Website: https://sculptingyourlife.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulHoffmanProfile 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulhoffman7946 & https://www.instagram.com/agoodmorninggreatday 

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Key moments:

• 5:14 - The Ford jingle, imposter syndrome, and early career
• 9:01 - November 14, 1988: the day that changed everything
• 13:50 - The moment Paul knew he had to reinvent himself
• 15:11 - How meeting T. Harv Eker launched the second chapter of his career
• 18:36 - Why a morning ritual is not optional
• 19:11 - The evening ritual: highlights vs. insights
• 33:55 - Paul's full morning ritual, step by step
• 42:09 - The 7-step Tuning In framework
• 43:19 - Paul's take on AI and why it's just a conversation
• 46:41 - What he would tell his 25-year-old self

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About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email podcast@builttoscale.co.

If your email list is underperforming, the problem probably isn't your copy. It's your domain reputation, your segmentation, and the fact that you're mailing the wrong people.

Ryan Healy has been in email marketing since 2002 and has sent over a billion emails across brands like Organifi, BIOptimizers, and Agora Financial. He's now co-founder of Upsender, an ESP (email marketing service platform) and list management agency. This episode is a masterclass in how email actually works in 2026.

What you'll learn:

• Why a "million person list" is probably worth nothing, and how to diagnose whether your list is actually viable
• The deliverability fundamentals that determine whether your emails land or disappear, including domain reputation, IP health, and sender scoring
• How to structure split tests properly so you're optimizing toward revenue, not vanity metrics
• Why segmenting down to your most engaged users is the fastest way to rehab a struggling account
• What the brands that are actually scaling on email have in common, and where the ones that plateau are falling short

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About Ryan Healy:

Ryan Healy co-founded Upsender, an ESP and email agency that has worked with roughly 70-80 clients over the past three and a half years, including major players in health, wellness, and financial publishing. He's one of the few people in this industry who has seen email evolve from local server software to AI-driven personalization at scale.

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Connect with him at:

Website: https://upsender.com/ 

Email: ryan@upsender.com

X: https://x.com/HeyHealy 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeyHealy/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heyhealy/ 

Telegram: https://t.me/HeyHealy 

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Key moments:

• 7:00 - When Ryan realized email was a backend revenue engine, not just a channel
• 17:00 - The shared IP vs. dedicated IP breakdown
• 20:00 - Primary inbox strategy and the Troy Erickson method that added 5 raw percentage points in open rate
• 29:00 - The right way to run email split tests in sequence
• 34:00 - Why Ryan built his own ESP and what it does differently
• 41:00 - The exact anatomy of an email list business that scales vs. one that dies

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About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email podcast@builttoscale.co.

Most marketers chase tactics. Nicole Starling built a seven-figure affiliate career by doing something almost no one does well: actually following through.

Nicole made the leap from 30 years of professional performing into digital marketing in 2020 with no background, no network, and no safety net. What she learned in the trenches of affiliate and influencer marketing cuts straight to the core of why most brand partnerships underperform.

What you'll learn:

• Why follow-through and accountability are more powerful growth levers than any funnel tactic
• How Nicole closed over a million dollars in affiliate sales for a single product through cold outreach and relationship management
• The real difference between influencer marketing and affiliate marketing, and how to structure deals that protect your budget
• Why brands are overpaying for content creators who can't deliver, and how to structure smarter partnership deals
• The truth about email marketing in 2026: not dead, but definitely not a one-trick pony
• How to build a diversified creator strategy across micro and macro partnerships without blowing your budget

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About Nicole Starling:

Nicole Starling spent 30 years as a professional musician performing 12-18 shows per week before pivoting into digital marketing in 2020. She's now Partnership Manager at Starling Studios, where she builds and manages affiliate and influencer relationships for brands across health, wellness, and e-commerce. Her superpower is relationships: she's known for relentless follow-through and building the kind of trust that actually converts.

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Connect with her at:

Email: nicole@starlingstudios.co

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-starling-4bb58a310/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicoledesireestarling  

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicstarling/ 

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Key moments:

[0:00] Why a 30-year musician became a digital marketer overnight

[11:22] The one word Nicole credits for scaling a product past $1M in sales: follow-through

[20:21] Nicole's honest take on the current state of email marketing

[28:55] Affiliate vs. influencer marketing: where they overlap and where they diverge

[36:32] What it actually means to be a content creator in 2026

[42:23] The smart way to diversify your influencer budget instead of betting on one big name

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About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email podcast@builttoscale.co.

Ben Harris has placed over 10,000 virtual assistants in three years. His first question to every overwhelmed founder is always the same: what are you doing right now that someone else could handle for $10 an hour?

That question changes everything.

What you'll learn:

• How to run a time audit that reveals exactly where your days are going (the 15-minute timer method Ben credits to Alex Hormozi)
• What a "$10 task" actually looks like and why letting go of them is harder than it sounds
• How Ben's VA manages his entire email inbox so he never misses what matters and never has to think about the rest
• Why AI won't kill the virtual employment industry, and what history tells us about tech that was supposed to eliminate jobs
• The three-phase Meta ads testing structure Sphere Rocket uses to scale a B2B service business
• What Ben looks at every single day to know whether his marketing is working

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About Ben Harris:

Ben Harris is the CMO of Sphere Rocket Virtual Assistance and a former executive at ClickFunnels and ClickBank. He started selling autographed football cards on eBay as a teenager, scaled a supplement brand to become the top-rated pre-workout on Amazon, and most recently built a full web application using Claude Code with zero prior coding experience. He has spent the past decade sitting in rooms he says he had no business being in, and learning from everyone in them.

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Connect with him at:

Website: https://sphererocketva.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-harris-online/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ben.harris.750331 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benharrisonline 

More about Sphere Rocket:

Free Resources: https://sphererocketva.com/resources 

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Key moments:

[00:09] Ben's origin story: from eBay hustle at age 12 to ClickFunnels and beyond

[13:20] What "buying back your time" actually means for a business owner

[17:12] The 15-minute kitchen timer trick for auditing where your time really goes

[20:00] The $10 task in practice: how Ben's assistant manages his entire inbox

[28:35] Will AI replace virtual assistants? Ben's take, including the ATM and internet parallels

[36:17] How Sphere Rocket runs Meta ads to acquire B2B clients and what ROAS looks like at day 40

[46:10] "Marketing problems are math problems" and what every operator needs to know about their numbers

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About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email podcast@builttoscale.co.

Do you have a revenue engine sitting in the form of an email marketing list? Many do and they are scared to turn it up and email en masse. Liss Graham Ellis has been managing and monetizing email lists for over a decade. Her verdict is blunt: if you have buyers on your list, you should be selling to them. A lot. One of the first things she does when she takes over a new list is simply start offering buyers more opportunities to buy. Because whoever ran it before her was afraid to ask.

What you'll learn:

• What each subscriber is actually worth per month (buyers vs. leads, and why the gap is much bigger than you think)
• Why a 100-word email outperforms a long-form essay and what your real job as an email sender actually is
• The silent mistake bleeding subscriber volume (hint: not all your acquisition streams are connected to your ESP)
• Why most brands are over-jabbing and under-punching, and how to fix the balance immediately
• How email, SMS, TikTok, direct response, and direct mail work together to build a full brand universe
• Why your email list and social channels are business assets with real valuation value, not just marketing tools

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About Liss Graham Ellis:

Liss Graham Ellis is the founder and president of List Management, where she manages and monetizes email lists for clients across health, e-commerce, and direct response. She is also the co-founder of a TikTok Shop management company helping brands connect with influencers to scale on the platform. Her path into marketing was accidental: she entered a fitness transformation contest, won, landed on a podcast, and built a full business from there without a single day of formal marketing training.

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Connect with her at:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557548173916

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisst_management/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mlgraham9 

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Key moments:

3:46 - What a buyer vs. lead is actually worth per month on your list

8:26 - The 100-word email argument (she got challenged on this publicly and she is right)

11:00 - The jab/punch imbalance and why you are leaving clean money on the table

14:46 - How TikTok Shop works and why most direct response brands are missing it

28:51 - Why direct mail is making a serious comeback in 2026

36:53 - The SMS trick that comes directly from your email performance data

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About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email podcast@builttoscale.co.

Most health brands are faking it. And the market is starting to notice. Built To Scale CMO Shmuel Herschberg sits down with Dr. Jesse Ropat, a doctor of pharmacy turned direct response creative strategist, to break down why authentic authority is becoming the single biggest lever in health and wellness marketing. This is not a conversation about lab coats. It is a conversation about what actually moves the needle.

What you'll learn:

• Why putting a real credentialed doctor in your VSL directly improves ROAS, click-through rates, and lowers refund rates
• How to balance persuasive claims with compliance without crossing the line
• The creative testing framework Jesse uses to squeeze maximum performance out of every ad concept
• Why long-form VSLs are still printing money and what the future format looks like
• How to use AI as a drafting tool without letting it flood your ad account with slop
• Why volume of creative is the name of the game on Meta right now and how to build a system around it

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About Dr. Jesse Ropat:

Dr. Jesse Ropat holds a doctorate in pharmacy and has spent the last several years applying that credential where few others have: direct response marketing for health and wellness brands. He writes scripts, films creative, and serves as the credentialed authority figure for some of the top-performing VSLs running on Meta today. His unique combination of clinical knowledge and creative strategy gives the brands he works with a compliance edge and a conversion edge at the same time.

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Connect with him at:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseropat/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JesseRopat/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jesseropat/ 

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Key moments:

06:11 — Why fake doctors are a ticking time bomb for your brand

12:17 — The right time to bring a doctor into your funnel (hint: earlier than you think)

13:29 — Long-form VSLs: still working, still printing

16:36 — How close to the line can you push claims with a real authority figure?

22:37 — How Jesse uses Claude to build first drafts without producing garbage

26:22 — The hook, body, and CTA structure behind his mini-VSL ads

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About The Built To Scale Podcast:

Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ 

For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/  

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email podcast@builttoscale.co.